Water and Health in Developing Nations

Two billion people worldwide do not have enough access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation, according to a United Nations report released on the eve of 2003, the "International Year of Fresh Water." When clean water is not readily available at low cost to one third of the planet's 6 billion people, disease spreads, health suffers, agriculture is put at risk and socioeconomic issues worsen, along with the disparity in living conditions between rich and poor.

"In India we are taught never to waste food and never disrespect water by using more than you actually need. Most people use one bucket of water to bathe every day," says Jagan Devaraj, a social and environmental activist in Bangalore. What's needed is 20 to 50 liters, or 5 to 12 gallons, of water per person per day to maintain health and sanitation, according to the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the average Latin American used 13.6 gallons a day in 1995, an amount that is projected to increase to 20 gallons by 2025, the same year that the U.S. is projected to consume more than 10 percent of global household water. Each person in the U.S., on average, uses 75-80 gallons a day: 18 gallons for toilet flushing, 11 gallons for showering, 15 gallons for clothes washing, 13 for faucet and other domestic use, 9.5 in leaks, and 30-50 gallons for outdoor use. While 100 percent of Americans have access to improved water sources and adequate sanitation, only 54 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans do.

In some countries, the difficulty of access to drinking water interferes with education and deepens gender divisions. "When it comes to collecting water, women are the ones who suffer most, followed by their daughters," says Kenyan social and environmental activist Barlet Colly Jaji. For many of these girls, the required journey to a water source consumes most of their day. In areas where resources are scarce, distant or seasonal, the local schools have few girls.

In the meantime, illness proliferates: When clean water is not readily available, contaminated water is used and reused for drinking, washing, cooking, cleaning and agriculture. Waterborne illnesses, such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid and malaria, are responsible for about 2.2 million deaths per year. Due to water shortages and lack of proper water storage, water is kept in buckets or basins—ideal breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that spread malaria, which kills an estimated million people per year. Some low-tech solutions, such as filtering and boiling, if widely accepted and used, could help reduce diseases considerably. A study in Bangladesh found that filtering water through old saris or other clothing folded in layers reduced cholera infections by 52 percent. Many people do boil water before drinking, but this uses up precious firewood and contributes to the destruction of forests.

The constant, underlying problem—lack of access—is complicated by the improper, sometimes corrupt management of scarce water resources. "In places like Nairobi, the urban poor pay high prices for water supplies and spend a high proportion of their income on water. This is because so much water has been diverted to the rich areas specifically for irrigation purposes like flower plantations," Jaji says. When water is scarce, those with money and resources have other options, says Leonard Omondi, who works with the Ecofinder Youth Movement, a nonprofit organization, in Kenya. "The wealthy have the purchasing power when it comes to clean water. They can connect tapped water to their residential lines, and ferry it from long distances during chronic scarcity," Omondi says.

Although the water crisis is most evident in less developed countries, North Americans and Western Europeans also have much at stake. As agriculture becomes increasingly more globalized, more and more of the food we eat has been grown in less developed countries. In 2003, an outbreak of hepatitis—a waterborne disease—that killed three Americans and sickened hundreds more was traced to green onions grown in the Mexicali Valley in northwestern Mexico. Mexico sends nearly a billion dollars' worth of produce to the U.S. each year. At the same time, U.S. diversion of water from the Colorado River to Los Angeles and California farms results in only a trickle reaching Mexico, exacerbating water shortages there. Individuals in this country represent only 10 percent of our national water consumption, 90 percent of which goes to industry and agriculture.

Still, there are many things that consumers can do to help reduce water use and pollution on a daily basis. This will save us money, too. (See "What You Can Do")

Resources:

American Water Works Association

EPA's Water Website

International Food Policy Research Institute

Water Environment Federation

The World's Water

UNESCO's Water