The importance of safe drinking water and sanitary systems for human health and well-being: a personal view

Provision of safe drinking water and the effective removal of bodily waste are vital for human health and well-being. The United Nations Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, signed by over 140 countries, now includes a special reference (General Comment 11, November 2002), which declares that ‘Water is a limited natural resource and a public good fundamental to life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite to the realization of other human rights.’ Unfortunately, political realities are often opposed to the aims of this fine declaration: political expediency often pushes the claims of water supply to the bottom of the priority list; wars and local conflicts may destroy significant infrastructure for the supply of safe drinking water and the removal of waste. Since 2000, the increasingly independent (and even isolationist) stance of the USA has weakened the ability of international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization to respond to the needs of developing countries. Despite a wealth of rhetoric on the importance of globalization, many western countries maintain agricultural subsidies and tariffs which feed a climate of mistrust, and which lead to an unwillingness to contribute to others. About 3.4 million people die each year from illnesses associated with contaminated water supplies and inadequate waste removal. The diseases associated with water contamination are malaria, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, and schistosomiasis. Lack of safe drinking water is the major factor underlying the deaths of over 1.5 million infants and children from diarrhoea each year. While contaminated water is a major cause of infectious disease, it also has an impact on health through the spread of organic and inorganic chemicals that are harmful to health. These include chlorinated solvents (which cause cancer), trihalomethanes (which cause liver and kidney damage), heavy metals such as lead (which causes nerve and brain damage, and birth defects), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (which cause liver damage, and may also cause cancer). Given the risk of infectious disease and chemical poisons from contaminated water, it is obvious that access to safe drinking water is a fundamental requirement for human existence. However, the availability of water also has wider implications through its contribution to other aspects of human life. Lack of availability of clean water correlates strongly with poverty. In many societies, women and girls are solely responsible for collecting water, and the task is enormous when the water source is many kilometres away. Many hours each day are spent carrying water containers Address for correspondence: Professor Charles Watson AM, Division of Health Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845, Australia. E-mail: c.watson@curtin.edu.au Building Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 27,2 (2006) pp. 85 /89