Access to clean water is a basic necessity for life on Earth, as it not only helps in maintaining health and ecosystems but also enables various human activities. The importance of clean water is evident in its role in drinking, sanitation, agriculture, and industry.
Basic access to clean water brings innumerable benefits, including disease prevention and improved health across populations, as well as supporting healthy ecosystems. It is also critical for food production, as clean water allows crops and livestock to thrive.
Providing access to clean water is more than just meeting immediate needs; it is about securing the future for our children and grandchildren.
If we want to protect water resources, reduce pollution, and ultimately ensure that everyone has access to clean drinking water, we must acknowledge the importance of clean water and address the challenges surrounding this vital resource.
Key Facts
- Waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and typhoid. Diarrhoeal diseases kill around 829,000 people every year due to unsafe drinking water, sanitation and hand hygiene. (World Health Organization)
- Child mortality can be effectively reduced if all households get access to clean drinking water. More than, 1,000 children die every day from diseases that could be prevented with clean water and sanitation (UNICEF)
- By reducing the number of patients, it eases pressure on healthcare systems. (In simple terms; limited and expensive water supply increases diseases). Investing in clean water and sanitation leads to economic returns; as much as $4.30 for every dollar invested, mostly by reducing healthcare costs (World Bank)
- This raises the attendance of pupils, specifically girls. According to UNICEF, schools with access to clean water and sanitation demonstrate a 15% increase in school attendance. (UNICEF)
- It makes agriculture, industry and also the whole economic productivity dependent on clean water. Regions can lose up to 6% of their GDP because of water scarcity, which affects agriculture, health and income. (World Bank)
Overview
There is no life without clean drinking water. The human body contains 60% of water. It sustains various important daily functions done by our bodies.
Water gets into our organs and tissues, so it should be pure and devoid of impurities like diseases, metals, and animal/human wastes. A sick person can become infected using unclean drinking water that is contaminated or has not been filtered.
Diarrhea is the most common side effect of ingesting dirty water. This singular condition alone can be fatal when uncorrected.
Learning how to filter water safely may provide a few resources for you to use in a natural disaster, which could help you have clean water for your family. Storage should follow the proper treatment of filtered water afterward.
Hydration has several advantages, such as:
- Cardiovascular health strengthened
- Cardiovascular health strengthens the proper movement of joints and muscles
- Reduced and controlled body temperature
- Flexible skin
- Optimal kidney performance lowers the risk of kidney stones, kidney failure, and UTIs
Another important aspect of water in the body is that it helps in the natural purging process.
Nevertheless, dirty and polluted water causes the body to expel more toxins than can be taken in, thus setting up an unfriendly habitat for germs to thrive.
Water-borne diseases were avoided: individuals who consume water from contaminated sources risk contracting various diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, flu A, typhoid fever, and polio since they lack access to clean drinking water.
Nonetheless, this is among many other benefits of having clean water, including the prevention of waterborne disease cases.
You also know about Importance of water cycle
Importance of Safe Drinking Water
The Vital Necessity of Water for Survival
It is scientifically proven that an individual would take three weeks without food, whereas not many would survive for at least 3 to 4 days without water.
When dehydration sets in, and breathing continues, they might slide into a coma and shock.
For this reason, water is indeed the most important basic need. Anything alive can never breathe without it.
The Global Crisis of Unsafe Drinking Water
However, it is a grim reality that billions of individuals worldwide lack access to clean water.
Each emergency or conflict that forces people from their homes to gather in places lacking clean drinking water or sanitation facilities creates conditions conducive to developing diseases caused by water. Among one of them is cholera.
Case Studies: The Impact of Water-Borne Diseases
As many as 60,000 (others say 80,000) cholera cases were present in the eastern Congo in 1994 when an estimated million Rwandans fled turmoil there.
Within a month, more than forty thousand people died. Yemen has had a multi-year cholera outbreak due to over six years of fighting that have claimed thousands of lives.
The Harsh Reality: Lack of Safe Water in Developing Nations
Remember that about two billion people globally have no access to safe drinking water inside their homes yet.
In Nepal, E. coli bacteria found in feces which can cause various illnesses, especially diarrhea are present in ninety percent of its citizens’ drinking water sources.
The Stark Contrast: Developed vs Developing Nations
In industrialized countries brimming with resources, including luxury accessing clean residence water becomes so natural, like taking fresh air itself however, think differently from the developing world’s point of view.
Most individuals in developed nations don’t even consider it, but this doesn’t hold for the rest of the globe. Numerous countries still lack access to safe drinking water sources or water fit for human use.
The Consequences of Unsafe Water for Children and Women
People die in the hundreds every day due to a lack of clean drinking water, and waterborne parasites and diseases are a serious problem. The most susceptible group is children under five years old.
Diarrheal diseases, which are among the leading causes of death among children below 5 years, can be easily prevented through the availability of clean water, improved sanitation, basic hygiene practices as well as nutritious food.
The Burden on Women and Girls
Women and girls who often have to go back home with containers full of water several times per day would greatly benefit if there were an accessible source nearby.
Many young women are deprived of the education to carry out this task. They enter into early marriages that limit their job opportunities. We cannot understand what is going on with all these complications.
Benefits of Safe Drinking Water
These are points establishing the importance of having safe drinking water:
1. Helps in flushing out Toxins
In addition, consuming clean, fresh, and safe drinking water helps remove different types of pollutants from the body these may originate from internal organs or the external environment, while others could result from consuming toxic liquids.
2. Defending against Illnesses
Did you know that people can suffer from several disorders if they can’t drink unadulterated potable water? Drinking infected water or being close to it leads to typhoid, cholera, and hepatitis, which are all fatal medical ailments.
3. Sanitation Facilities Improved
Safe water is important for drinking and hygiene. Using dirty water while washing your body or clothes will also spread diseases.
The same applies to things like cooking, cleaning up, and the like, which are indispensable in our everyday lives.
Healthy living requires the availability of clean drinking water.
Safe drinking water is not just a basic human right it’s life itself and health. Addressing this global issue is necessary for ensuring a healthy population worldwide.
Importance of Safe Water Supply System
Understanding Water Supply Systems
Water supply systems are infrastructures that collect, transmit, treat, store, and distribute water for household use, businesses, industries, irrigation, and other developmental purposes such as firefighting and street cleaning.
The Role of Water Supply Systems in Municipal Services
The most crucial municipal service is the provision of clean drinking water. People depend on it for drinking, cooking, washing dishes, or any water-related homework.
Meeting Quality and Quantity Standards in Water Supply
In addition to industrial and commercial water supplies, the supply systems must also meet public needs. Water must always meet the standards for quality and quantity.
The Safe Water System: A Solution for Developing Countries
Safe Water Systems are simple, low-cost solutions to the problem of poor-quality water, particularly in developing countries; they reduce diarrhea incidence rates by 22% to 84%.
Key Components of the Safe Water System
Water is made safe through treatment procedures followed by protection from contamination.
These include behavior change communication strategies, safe storage containers for household drinking water, and point-of-use (POU) domestic water purification with sodium hypochlorite (a chlorine-based solution).
Reducing Diarrheal Diseases Through Safe Water Supply
It seeks specifically to reduce diarrheal diseases among high-risk groups like under-fives.
Importance of Clean Water in the Environment
The Fundamental Role of Water in Earth’s Ecosystem
Water covers over 70% of the earth’s surface area. Not surprisingly, all living organisms on this magnificent planet require water because life began with water on Earth. Undeniably, clean water plays diverse roles in the environment.
Water as a Vital Environmental Resource
A home to live in, a world and local resources, a means of transport, and a climate controller are all necessary.
In the last two centuries, it has become an endpoint for many pollutants being released into nature and a recently discovered mine that may be tapped to extract minerals.
The Need for Sustainable Water Practices
To continue enjoying the benefits of safe drinking water and flourishing oceans and rivers, people have to change how they use and treat it completely.
Biodiversity Supported by Clean Water
Many species inhabit bodies of water, ranging from tiny micron-sized invertebrates to blue whales reaching up to 30 meters in length and weighing about 200 tonnes. Every year, new species are found at great depths in the ocean.
Impact of Water on Global Climate
As they are also responsible for absorbing carbon from the air, the world’s largest sink, seas/oceans significantly affect global climate.
This is why clean water is important to the environment; it helps warm or cool different places due to the current flow in oceans, making them more habitable.
Clean Water and the Hydrological Cycle
Evaporation from warmer waters can fall as rain or snow around the globe, thus supporting life on land.
Human Dependence on Clean Water
Safe drinking water supplies are used by humans daily and are necessary for life.
We use it at home when flushing toilets, washing up ourselves, taking showers, or cooking meals.
It goes into producing our food, clothes, phones, cars, and written works.
Water as a Key to Industrial and Urban Development
We use it to build our houses, schools, roads, heating and cooling industrial buildings, etc.
It also provides lighting for our homes and towns through the power generated by its flow.
Recreational and Transportation Uses of Water
On a hot summer day, we swim in the sea or stroll along the shore of a lake to cool down.
Water can be used as a means of connection and transportation for both people and goods.
It serves as a natural highway that connects inland communities linked by navigable rivers to coastal urban centers, thereby enabling international trade.
The Environmental Consequences of Water Misuse
Unfortunately, how we use and misuse this precious resource has implications for our health and the lives of everyone who lives on it.
Pollution continues to degrade water supply and damage its quality, while overuse, climatic changes within water ecosystems, and climate change further degrade water supplies.
The Impact of Pollution and Climate Change on Water Quality
Airborne pollutants released from industrial processes or transport may affect water quality and end up in lakes, rivers, or oceans.
Due to our consumption of water, we impact oceanic temperatures and salinity.
The Effects of Industrial Processes on Water Systems
Cooling waters utilized in energy production are often much warmer than the water temperatures of natural systems. Likewise, desalination methods may return high-salt brine into the ocean.
The Need for Responsible Water Management
Different returns to nature are often not the same as what is ultimately received. Sometimes, we return something to where it was taken from.
Importance of Clean Water and Sanitation
Impact of Poor Sanitation on Children
Every day, diarrheal infections due to poor sanitation still kill more than 800 children and remain among the leading causes of death in young children.
Water for Life and SDGs
Adequate and hygienic water provision is largely required for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals–gender equality and good health.
Economic Benefits of Water Management
By prudently directing our water resources, we will better control energy use and food production, create more jobs, and improve economic growth.
We can also protect our aquatic biodiversity while dealing with global warming.
Frequently Asked Questions/FAQs
Why is Clean Water Important?
People require more than just water; they need clean water for everyone, not just for themselves. Communities require access to safe, clean water for drinking, washing, and sanitation. People must have a clean and safe water supply to survive and prosper physically, mentally, economically, socially, and spiritually. Among the causes are:
- Sustainable growth.
- Socioeconomic growth.
- Generation of food and energy.
- Survival and wellbeing.
- Robust ecosystems.
No access to clean water significantly contributes to poverty, and ending it requires addressing this issue. A community’s economic growth and poverty level considerably increase and decrease when water sources are enhanced and made sustainable. Water collection might take women and children up to six hours every day. Because it takes up so much time, it prevents women from earning a living and significantly cuts down on how much time kids have to spend in school.
