User:Tinammys/Water issues in developing countries

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Global programs

The contamination of water still remains a huge problem because of the normalization of practices that pollute the quality of water bodies. In developing countries, almost 80% of diseases related with water quality. open defecation still persists and the associated health risks that come with it such as cholera and malaria remain a nuisance, especially to the vulnerable, in most communities. In developing countries, it is estimated that diarrhea takes the lives of 1.5 million children every year, most of these under the age of five.

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Specific contaminants of concern include unsafe levels of biological pollutants and chemical contaminants, including


 * metals, including iron and arsenic
 * organic matter
 * salts
 * viruses
 * bacteria
 * protozoa
 * parasites
 * pathogenic microorganisms
 * pesticides

The Water Project
The Water Project, Inc is a non-profit international organization that develops and implements sustainable water projects in Sub-Saharan Africa like Kenya, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Uganda. The Water Project has funded or completed over 2,500 projects and 1,500 water sources that have helped over 569,000 people improve their access to clean water and sanitation. These projects focus heavily on teaching proper sanitation and hygiene practices, as well as improving water facilities by drilling boreholes, updating well structures, and introducing rain water harvesting solutions.

Source: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/26-1455510

References: https://greatnonprofits.org/org/the-water-project-inc
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809330-6.00001-5

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11079-6

Central Asia Water and Energy Program[edit]
Central Asia Water and Energy Program (CAWEP) is a World Bank, European Union, Swiss & UK funded program to organize Central Asian governments on common water resources management through regional organizations, like the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS). The program focuses on three issues: water security, energy security and energy-water linkages. It aims to foster balanced communications between Central Asian countries to achieve a regional goal, water and energy security. To ensure their goal, the program works closely with governments, civil and national organizations.

Most recently, the program helped organize The Global Disruptive Tech Challenge: Restoring Landscapes in the Aral Sea Region. This competition was created to encourage bright minds to come up with revolutionary solutions for land degradation and desertification in the Aral Sea Region, which used to be home to one of the largest lakes in the world and has since been reduced near to nothing. There were several winning projects that centered around agriculture and land management, sustainable forestry, socio-economic development and globally expanding people knowledge and access to information on the issue.

Source: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/04/09/innovative-restoration-plans-for-aral-sea-region-announced-at-global-disruptive-tech-challenge-2021

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Kenya, a country of 50 million population, struggles with a staggering population growth rate of 2.28% per year. This high population growth rate pushes Kenya's natural resources to the brink of total depletion. 32% of the population don't have access to improved water sources whereas 48% percent cannot access basic sanitation systems. Much of the country has a severely arid climate, with a few areas enjoying rain and access to water resources. Deforestation and soil degradation have polluted surface water, and the government does not have the capacity to develop water treatment or distribution systems, leaving the vast majority of the country without access to water. This has exacerbated gender politics, as 74% of women must spend an average of 8 hours per day securing water for their families.

Low income has worsened the situation. It is estimated that 66% of the total population lives to earn less than $3.20 per day. Despite its poor quality and unreliableness, costs for water in local areas are 9 times higher than that of safe water in urban areas. This regional inequality makes people in rural areas difficult to obtain water on a daily basis. Furthermore, even in urban areas, which are equipped with piped water systems, it's hard to produce a reliable constant flow of water. Practical solutions are needed in the entire country. ''The Sand dam is one of the decentralized rainwater harvesting infrastructures to deal with this unbalanced water distribution. This low-cost infrastructure has a simple and understandable structure, conserving surplus water for later use, increasing efficiency and rural regions' water access by saving people's time to gathering water on a long road. There are already about 1,800 sand dams in Kitui County.''

The growing population and stagnant economy have exacerbated urban, suburban, and rural poverty. It also has aggravated the country's lack of access to clean drinking water which leaves most of the non-elite population suffering from disease. This leads to the crippling of Kenya's human capital.

Private water companies have taken up the slack from Kenya's government, but the Kenyan government prevents them from moving into the poverty-stricken areas to avoid profiteering activities. Unfortunately, since Kenya's government also refuses to provide services, this leaves the disenfranchised with no options for obtaining clean water.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196321000380

https://thewaterproject.org/sand-dams

https://gripp.iwmi.org/natural-infrastructure/water-storage/ensuring-resilience-through-community-sand-dams-in-kenya/

''Bangladesh is a riparian country with more than 164 million population and 230 rivers. With abundant water resources, Bangladesh faces various water contaminations mainly caused by pollutants, bacteria, and pesticides.'' Historically, water sources in Bangladesh came from surface water contaminated with bacteria. Drinking infected water resulted in infants and children suffering from acute gastrointestinal disease that led to a high mortality rate. ''According to UNICEF, 38.3% of Bangladeshis drink unsafe water from bacteria-contaminated sources. Bangladesh is facing an acute reliable drinking water scarcity. Bangladesh's surface and ground water are highly saline due to rising sea levels.''

During the 1970s, UNICEF worked with the Department of Public Health Engineering to install tube-wells. Tube-wells draw water from underground aquifers to provide a safe source of water for the nation. As of 2010, 67% of Bangladeshis had a permanent water source and a majority of them used tube wells.

The wells consist of tubes 5 cm in diameter inserted less than 200 m into the ground and capped with an iron or steel hand pump. At that time, standard water testing procedures did not include arsenic testing. This lack of precaution led to one of the largest mass poisoning of a population because the ground water used for drinking was contaminated with arsenic. Intervention measures such as awareness programs and the painting of tube-wells red if the water is above the government limit of 50 ppb arsenic (green otherwise) have been effective in preventing further poisoning.

Available options for providing safe drinking water include deep wells, traditionally dug wells, treatment of surface water, and rainwater harvesting. Between 2000 and 2010, the government installed those safe water devices in arsenic-affected regions of Bangladesh. ''Between 2000 and 2012, the proportion of Bangladesh population who drink water with arsenic has decreased from 26.6% to 12.4%. There are 19.4 million Bangladeshis still drinking arsenic-contained water.''

Panama has a tropical climate and receives abundant rainfall (up to 3000mm per year), yet the country still suffers from limited water access and pollution. Intense El Niño periods, periodic droughts, reduce water availability. ''Multiple factors like urbanization, impacts of climate change, and economic development have decreased water resources. The high frequency of floods in recent years and the lack of corresponding measures resulted in tension among the local population. Rapid population growth in recent decades led to an unprecedented increase in freshwater demand. Regional inequality exists in water resources and water governance.'' An estimated 7.5-31% of Panama's population lives in isolated rural areas with minimal access to potable water and few sewage treatment facilities.

Given the large quantities of rainfall, rainwater harvesting has been implemented as a solution to increase water access. Still, the rainwater is subject to pick up any substances on the rooftops that it runs over before entering a collection tank. Water quality tests revealed that the collected water often contains coliforms or fecal coliforms, likely from running through animal droppings on roofs.

The Bocas del Toro province gets its water from a body of water named Big Creek. Although the water goes through a purification process, the treatment infrastructure was built to accommodate a much lower water demand than what is currently expected of it. Waterborne diseases are still a prominent problem for Bocas del Toro, with diarrhea, intestinal problems, and parasitosis being the leading causes for infant mortality in the province.

References

Participatory Research and Development Initiative-PRDI：“Increasing Salinity Threatens Productivity of Bangladesh”https://www.preventionweb.net/files/8199_Salinity.pdf

https://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/en/better-access-safe-drinking-water

Hasan, M. K., Shahriar, A., & Jim, K. U. (2019). Water pollution in Bangladesh and its impact on public health. Heliyon, 5(8), e02145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02145

https://www.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/2018/08/water-sector-in-panama-challenges-and-opportunities.pdf

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814790-0.00003-X

Global programs
Sanitation and Water for All

Aimed at achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 6, Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) was established as a platform for partnerships between governments, civil society, the private sector, UN agencies, research and learning institutions, and the philanthropic community. SWA encourages partners to prioritize water, sanitation and hygiene along with ensuring sufficient finance and building better governance structures. To ensure that these priorities remain so, the SWA holds “High Level Meetings” where partners communicate the recent developments made, measure progress, and continue the discussion on the importance of Sustainable Development Goal 6. Water contamination remains a prevalent problem because practices that pollute bodies of water are normalized. In developing countries, open defecation still persists and the associated health risks that come with it such as cholera and malaria remain a nuisance, especially to the vulnerable, in most communities. In developing countries, it is estimated that diarrhea takes the lives of 1.5 million children every year, most of these under the age of five.

India
India's growing population is putting a strain on the country's precious water resources. According to The World Bank, the population of India as of 2019 was roughly 1,366,417,750 people. This means that 17.7% of the global population is contributed by the population of India. Although this number has increased since then, India's population count has made it the second-most populated country in the world, following close behind the first most populated country, China. The country of India is classified as "water stressed" with a water availability of 1,000-1,700 m3/person/year. 21% of countries' diseases are related to water. In 2008, 88% of the population had access and was using improved drinking water sources. However, "Improved drinking water source" is an ambiguous term, ranging in meaning from fully treated and 24-hour availability to merely being piped through the city and sporadically available. This is in part due to large inefficiencies in the water infrastructure in which up to 40% of water leaks out.

Bangladesh
This lack of precaution led to one of the largest mass poisoning of a population because the ground water used for drinking was contaminated with arsenic. An astonishing amount of people in Bangladesh, possibly numbers of up to 58 million people, were exposed to and were continually consuming the water poisoned by arsenic from around the year 1990 through 2000. After the revelation that arsenic was poisoning the peoples’ water sources, it was brought to light that roughly 90% of the Bangladesh population was exposed to it on some level. Intervention measures such as awareness programs and the painting of tube-wells red if the water is above the government limit of 50 ppb arsenic (green otherwise) have been effective in preventing further poisoning.