Access to Safe Drinking Water: Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Global Health

In developing countries, women and girls spend an estimated 40 billion hours a year collecting water.

Since humans established permanent settlements and systems of agriculture, efforts to develop water supplies and waste management for the successful maintenance and growth of societies have been apparent. Archaeologists have found evidence of ancient wells, water pipes and both public and private bathing and toilet facilities in the Bronze Age. In ancient Greece and Rome, the importance of water for public health was recognized, and inequalities of access according to wealth and status must have been present.

In Europe, in more recent times, links between better water and waste management systemsand improved public health were recognized in 1854, from the work of the physician John Snow in London’s Soho district during the cholera outbreak of the time. Snow’s communication with residents and careful observations traced the source of the cholera outbreak to a public water pump. The pump drew water from a well found to have loose bricks, allowing sewage from a nearby cesspool to easily contaminate it. This led to changes in water and waste systems of London and other cities, which were implemented to attempt to keep sewerage separate from water supplies. Since then, the public health, social and economic benefits of safe water and sanitation have been well-supported by research evidence.

Globally, people of many nations—or high income regions within nations—now enjoy the health benefits of vast, reliably maintained infrastructure and water management systems that pipe safe, clean water into people’s homes for drinking, cooking, washing and flushing their waste into sewerage systems. In these regions, people no longer have the responsibility of maintaining their own supply of safe water, or collecting water from a shared source outside of their own house or yard. Instead, people are billed, with variable levels of efficiency and cost recovery, for water services provided by government or private utility companies.

GAINING ACCESS

Despite the overwhelmingly clear evidence that providing safer, accessible and more reliable supplies of fresh water leads to healthier populations and economies, millions of people still struggle to access safe drinking water, and more than 840,000 people die each year from poor water, sanitation and hygiene.

The most commonly used definition of “access” is defined as having a source of safe water within 1 kilometer of the dwelling. It is estimated that in 2015, 663 million people still lacked access to “improved” drinking water sources. Improved sources are those deemed to be relatively protected from contamination and, therefore, likely to provide water safe for human consumption and household use, such as piped water supplies into the house, yard, boreholes or protected wells or springs.

Most unimproved sources—for example, surface water or unprotected wells or springs—and many improved water sources are located away from the home and publicly shared. Transportation of water from the supply point to the house is, therefore, required, and globally this is most often achieved through unpaid, informal work performed by women. In developing countries, women and girls spend an estimated 40 billion hours a year collecting water.

Significant inequalities exist at regional, national and even local levels. For example, within communities, particular households and individuals who must physically collect and carry their own water can face barriers to accessing sufficient safe water due to poverty, disability, ethnicity or age.

Jessica Budds and researchers at the University of East Anglia Water Security Research Centre, United Kingdom, highlight that only about 0.5% of water on Earth is usable freshwater, as most of the 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water on the planet (70% of the planet) is seawater. Water scarcity affects 40% of the world’s population, and water use is predicted to increase by 50% in developing countries and 18% in developed countries by 2025. It is thought that water scarcity will be exacerbated by population growth, expanding agriculture and climate change. However, physical availability of water is not a good indicator of access, with 70% of global freshwater used by agriculture, and only 10% used for domestic purposes.

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Taxonomy

• Public Health
• Access
• Drinking Water