The Dirty Problem of Clean Water
Why we are failing to provide millions with access to sanitary water.
“Water is the driving force of all nature” -Leonardo DaVinci
Water is the most essential substance for humans. Not only are we composed of about 60% water, but humans can also only go approximately three days without water; which begs the question “why does everyone not have access to safe water?” Although many of us take drinking water for granted, across the globe, there are 700 million people who are water insecure and by 2025, the number will reach the billions. Safe drinking water is an essential need not only for humans and animals, but also for plants. Plants need clean water to survive as well as to grow into safe-to-eat foods.
They absorb water from the soil through their root systems at the tips of which they grow and give nutrients back to the soil through their leaves. Without proper amounts of both water and nutrients, plants will wither and die, which ultimately effects the health of all living things. This means that lacking access to clean water not only leaves regions thirsty, but hungry too. The health of a community is also directly tied to its access to clean water on a larger scale, because of diseases like cholera that are spread via contaminated drinking water.
To address the lack of clean water in communities, it is important to understand why regions struggle to acquire sanitary water. Firstly, poor communities around the world along with government agencies must first obtain a well or water source, which requires drilling through the ground (mostly accompanied by toxic chemicals) to find water. A secondary problem is lack of funding for these projects, especially in developing countries where there simply isn’t enough of a tax base to fund these projects. Even in developed countries like the United States and Canada it is difficult to obtain funding for water projects because they do not have large populations that require clean drinking water. Water scarcity is being overlooked even in our own backyards regardless of the dire need there is for it.
Although it may seem like technology will solve the issue of access to clean drinking water, there are many barriers that hinder adoption of this technology. For example, water desalination, a technology that takes salt water from oceans and turns it into pure water may be promising, but it is expensive to implement. In addition to the high price, desalination places strain on the planet’s water supply. As it takes a large amount of energy to remove salt from water, pollution must be dealt with as a result. This leaves national government and regional agencies in an undesirable position because they must decide between human health and environmental health. Although access to clean drinking water is vital for both human health and environmental health, many developing countries have limited funding available and are not able to implement this technology just yet. Moreover, although water desalination helps in some regions, it does not solve the issue of polluted rivers or lakes in other regions around the world where people use this as their main source of drinking water.
Essentially, the problem of clean water boils down to a lack of funding and underdeveloped technology. Developing countries are not able to fund or implement new technologies to improve access to clean water because they do not have the resources. Even if they did have the funds, technologies like water desalination would not be implemented more often in regions around the world that desperately need it because it requires a close body of salt water. In addition, as mentioned previously, in developed regions like North America this technology is expensive and places strain on the environment if used excessively.
Key Takeaways:
1. Clean Water is needed for both humans and crops.
2. Lack of Clean Water can lead to ramped disease spreading in communities.
3. Obtaining Clean Water is Expensive
4. Technologies that aim to help conversely pollute the environment and are not effective in all regions.
5. This is not a problem locked to one region, but rather a global problem that we as global citizens must solve.
6. Most importantly, please do not take access to clean drinking water for granted.
Thank you for reading my article! I hope you learned something new. I’m a Sophomore at The Buckley School and am currently an innovator at The Knowledge Society! I would love to hear any feedback about my article, and I encourage you to connect with me on my Linkedin so we can continue the conversation! Also, click here to view my portfolio.
