Water quality & Health

What is one of the main pollutants of water?

Human sewage is one of the main pollutants.

Toilets may be a simple hole in the ground (latrine) or a drop over a water source. May then be used for drinking, washing and watering animals.

What do WaterAid estimate?

That 785 million people live without ready access to safe drinking water.

What is the case in parts of the world?

Attempts to manage water supplies through dam construction, irrigation development and flood control have led to adverse health impact from water pollution causing significant preventable disease.

e.g. stagnant waters created by man-made reservoirs in Sub-Saharan Africa create the perfect conditions for malaria-spreading mosquitoes to breed and multiply.

What can be the case even with attempts at more sustainable strategies?

More sustainable strategies such as increasing use of wastewater in agriculture which is important for livelihood opportunities, are also associated with serious public health risks, as in areas without seperate sewage systems the waste water may contain faecal matter.

What is cholera linked to?

Poor quality of water such as bacteria and chemicals. Typhoid.

What is schistosomiasis?

An acute and chronic disease caused by parasitic worms which have part of their lifecycle in water, people are infected during exposure to infested water.

What do diseases like malaria have?

Water-related vectors.

What is legionallosis?

A respiratory disease caused by bacteria which affect the lungs and cause a severe form of pneumonia.

Most common form of transmission is inhalation of tiny droplets of water that contains the bacteria that cause the infection.

How can cancer and tooth/skeletal damage be cause by water?

Millions are exposed to unsafe levels of naturally - occurring arsenic and flouride.

Why is Sub-Sharan Africa affected?

Their stagnant waters create perfect conditions for malaria-spreading Anopholes mosquitoes to breed and multiply.

Many of its high risk areas are in vicinity of a reservoir.

What was the case in 2017?

2.1% of all global deaths related to an unsafe water supply, though as much as 6% in LICs.

How is the Niger Delta affected?

Oil spills, waste dumping and gas flaring are endemic and this type of pollution has damaged the soil, water and air quality for decades.

How many people are affected in the Niger Delta?

Hundreds of thousands are affected, particularly poorest and those who rely on traditional livelihoods such as fishing and agriculture.

What has improved this water quality?

Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

Number of diarrhoeal diseases have fallen steadily and between 2000 and 2017, 1.6 billion people gained access to an improved drinking water supply.

What has been created for improve water quality?

Better tools and procedures to improve and protect drinking water quality at the community and urban level.

e.g. through Water Safety Plans. (including better awareness & education to reduce faecal contamination and disinfecting supplies with chlorine).

What has become more available to combat water quality?

Availability of simple and inexpensive approaches to treat and safely store water at household level e.g. boiling and covered storage.

What is Sustainable development goal 6 (SDG 6)?

To control human exposure to waterborne pathogens associated with faecal waste.

Remains a priority in attaining goal SDG 6 of safe drinking water and sanitation for all.