Many of us take clean water for granted. In America, we use
clean drinking water to flush our toilets and water our plants. However, access
to safe and clean water is a struggle to find in many developing countries.
According to the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and
Drinking-Water (GLAAS), while access to water, sanitation, and hygiene has
considerably improved globally, service coverage could slip behind if adequate
resources are not secured to sustain routine operations. They say that
financing and human resources is a major barrier to progress because a lot of
the countries do not have information on national sanitation and drinking
water. Even if there were clean water available, there is a chronic lac of
skilled technicians to operate and maintain sanitation and drinking water
infrastructure. Fundings will not be sufficient to maintain routine operation
and maintenance. Although there is a global financial crisis, the total amount
of development aid for sanitation and drinking water increased by 3% between
2008 and 2010. The problem is that only half of it is targeted to the regions
where 70% of the global unserved actually live.
Overall, we know that there is a problem and it needs to be
fixed somehow. Having clean water can prevent so many health related issues
such as diarrhea. I think that funds need to be distributed equally and be
spent wisely. The article said that just having knowledge of the rights to
water and sanitation may help target resources and avoid discrimination in the
provision of WASH services. I think the main focus of the government should be
to provide clean water for their people. Focusing on this idea can dramatically
increase the health of the people, because I know that in Africa, baby formula
is banned so that mothers cannot be tempted to use the dirty water for the
baby. This causes problems because babies in Africa and other places can
benefit from formula milk, especially when the mother is malnourished. Having
healthier people means having a better country. This ties in with my other post
about the importance of having toilets, because this can prevent feces from
contaminating the drinking water.
No comments:
Post a Comment