There are many concerns when it comes to public health. There are environmental concerns along with religious concerns. Some of these concerns are nutrition/malnutrition, immunization,healthy drinking water, sudden infant death syndrome, and breastfeeding. The topic that stands out for me is healthy drinking water.
I picked healthy drinking water because I am very picky about the water I drink. The water I drink has to be filtered. I will not drink tap water. I also need the water to be ice cold. I prefer the water with flavor shots in it. I also notice that I drink water faster if I have a straw. Then I got to thinking that I should not be that picky. There are millions that can not even drink the water that is near them and here I am saying I NEED to drink water this way. I should be happy with the way the water comes. Right?
In the developed countries there are only 10 million people without safe drinking water. Not just one country that is all of the developed countries. In Latin America and the Caribbean there are 32 million people with out safe drinking. In South, West and Central Asia there are 196 Million people with out safe drinking water. In Southeast, East Asia and Oceania there are 200 million people with out safe drinking water. You are probably thinking wow those are some high numbers, but what about Africa? Africa has 345 million people are without safe drinking water.
With 345 Million people without safe drinking water I thought I would dig in to why is the water in Africa so unsafe? Most of Africa just does not have access to water at all. When the small towns do have access to water it is contaminated. Water plants are not properly maintained because of funds. Africa does not do water testing as much as they should. Which is another reason they have unsafe water.
Shocking facts:
*3.4 million people die each year from a water related disease.
*780 million people lack access to clean water. That's more then two and half times the population of the United States.
*The major illness is caused my fecal matter.
*Every 21 seconds a child dies from a water-related illness.
Math Time:
If one child dies every 21 seconds that means 2 children are die each minute. That means 171 children die each hour. That means 86,400 die each day.
Want to help?
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Sources:
The Water Project. (2014). Retrieved 5 14, 2014, from www.thewaterproject.org
water.org. (2014). Retrieved 5 14, 2014, from www.water.org
Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteYou provide some interesting facts on water. We never think about the food we eat or the things we drink until it is brought to our attention. We always think that drinking water is more healthy to drink then thinking sodas or tea, or lemonade products. In some countries, I have learned that they dont even have assess to water more or less water to drink. I did come into a rare medical situation with drinking water. When I worked at this Mental Health facility, this guy could only drink certain amount of water a day for his health, it even made him sick once when he had drank to much one day. I feel that we are lucky and that we need to count our blessings on being able to have assess to drinking water and it i plentiful.