March 22, 2011
World Water Day update: urban public health crisis
Lack of basic services for growing urban populations is causing a huge public health crisis.
A woman collecting water from an unofficial water point in a slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Charles Bibby / Financial Times
With a rapidly growing urban population lacking clean water and
toilets, the developing world is facing a massive public health crisis
this
World Water Day.With the majority of people now living in urban centers rather than
rural areas, water and sanitation-related diseases such as diarrhea and
cholera are rife within urban slums. These are often unplanned, very
densely populated and unserved by even the most basic water and
sanitation infrastructure.
Where there is no safe water supply, people either collect from polluted sources or rely on vendors selling expensive water of dubious and unverified origin.
Margaret Batty, UK Director of Policy & Campaigns, WaterAid
To mark
World Water Day and its theme this year of Water for Cities, WaterAid is calling on
governments to put the highest political priority on the provision of
water and sanitation services for the urban poor.
"One of the biggest challenges facing the developing world is the
rate of urbanization," said Margaret Batty, WaterAid's UK Director of
Policy and Campaigns.
"Where there is no safe water supply, people either collect from
polluted sources or rely on vendors selling expensive water of dubious
and unverified origin. A lack of sanitation facilities means that
streets are turned into sites of open defecation and drainage channels
become full of untreated waste. This poses a serious health risk, and
disease is rampant in many urban slums."
Populations in developing nations are set to triple over the next 30 years with urban areas expected to see the biggest growth. By 2030 around 60% of all the people in the world will be urban dwellers.
884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water, while a staggering 2.6 billion do not have somewhere safe to go to the toilet.
It is estimated that between 30 and 60% of the urban population of
sub-Saharan Africa has no access to the municipal water supply. In most
developing countries of Africa and Asia, national laws discourage the
provision of piped water supply to people without land tenure rights –
landless, informal settlement dwellers.
Women living in slum communities, ashamed of having to defecate in
public in daylight hours, wait until night time, and can suffer stomach
problems as a consequence. Night time excursions to a latrine are
frightening and dangerous because they run the risk of assault or rape.
The impact of having no access to water and sanitation is immense:
- Diarrhea caused by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and insufficient hygiene kill 4,000 children every day.
- Half of all hospital beds in the developing world are full with people suffering from water and sanitation related diseases.
- 443 million school days are lost each year in the developing world due to water-related diseases.
- Lack of safe water and sanitation costs sub-Saharan Africa around 5% of its Gross Domestic Product each year
"Urgent action must be taken," concluded Batty. "We cannot stand by
and see more children die, more girls out of school and economic
opportunities lost in the ever-growing urban slums. The urban population
is growing rapidly, and governments around the world must act to halt
this expanding health crisis."
This World Water Day, you can help stand up for the 884 million people living without clean water by donating your Facebook or Twitter voice or making a donation to WaterAid.