For Kim, A post about water

The other day I posted on facebook asking for blog ideas from my friends, and the lovely Kim W.- book sale junkie, top-notch conversation partner and (spoiler alert) clean water crusader- suggested I talk a little bit about why safe water is such a huge deal. And as it happens, I have recently been tasked with researching water-borne infectious disease for a group project anyway...which means this is pretty much the perfect opportunity to share what I've learned, because it is an important public health issue. It's a little hard to stomach some of the details, but that's kind of the point- it is easy to take things like clean water for granted when you've never gone without.  It's easy, even as a public health advocate, to get lost in the statistics and not think about what those numbers really mean.

So according to the CDC, nearly 4% of the disease burden around the world is a result of poor water quality.  Nearly two billion people (1.8 billion according to the non-profit Water for People...about a quarter of the world's population)  do not have access to safe drinking water, which means that they are at risk of a host of bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal infections, not to mention illness caused by environmental toxins. A great many of these individuals are children, whose bodies are ill-equipped to withstand the stress of disease.

The biggest problem in affected areas is that, due to poor sanitation and water treatment, waste from humans and animals is leaching into the water supply, and the majority of these pathogens are transmitted via the fecal-oral route.

So, put more bluntly- lots and lots of people get horribly sick because their water has poop in it. I know we all know that, in theory, but still. I will think about it the next time I complain that the stuff coming out of my tap tastes a little too mineral-y for my liking or when the hot water in the shower runs out before I have a chance to finish rinsing my conditioner.

But anyway, back to the scary numbers. Diarrheal diseases like cholera and giardia and various dysenteries are responsible an estimated 1.5-2 million deaths per year, or roughly 4% of all deaths. This problem is compounded because individuals who are already malnourished or undernourished- another HUGE issue, of course, in many parts of the developing world, are at increased risk of becoming severely ill or dying from dehydration. Same for young kids or the immunocompromised.  Plus it's kind of hard sometimes to rehydrate properly when your water is what made you sick in the first place.

Diarrheal and dysenteric diseases are major players- and usually the most deadly on a population level, but they are not the only threats out there.  Both hepatitis A and E can be transmitted through water,and although they are generally mild in young people they can be deadly for older individuals or those whose immune systems or livers are not functioning adequately. For pregnant women, the risk of acute liver failure from hepatitis E is quite significant.  Additionally, a number of parasitic infections are spread through water.  Schistosomiasis, a helminth infection that likely affects nearly 250 million people (with another 400 million of so at risk), doesn't even require ingestion of water for transmission.  The larvae of these flatworms crawl right through a person's skin while they are swimming, bathing, washing clothes...they are at risk, essentially, any time they have any part of their body in contaminated fresh water. Infections are often asymptomatic, or nearly so, for several months but over time inflammation and scar tissue can lead to damage of the lungs, liver, intestines, bladder, spleen and, more rarely, other organs. Eggs laid by the adult worms within an afflicted individuals gut or bladder are shed into the water, where the cycle begins anew.

I could go on, but I think you guys get the point. Contaminated water is a MASSIVE problem for a pretty significant portion of the population of our planet.  Every once in a while I take a good look at something like this and it sorta knocks the wind out of me for a second. But I'm glad, because it might just make me a more responsible citizen in the long run.

So what do you guys think?  Did you find these numbers surprising at all, or not so much?  If you're feeling inclined to put something toward solving this problem, here are a few good charities:

 Water for People
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative