Protecting groundwater for health: Managing the quality of drinking-water sources

Overview

Water-related disease remains one of the major health concerns in the world. Diarrhoeal diseases, which are largely derived from poor water and sanitation, accounted for 1.8 million deaths in 2002 and contributed around 62 million Disability Adjusted Life Years per annum (WHO, 2004a). On a global scale, this places diarrhoeal disease as the sixth highest cause of mortality and third in the list of morbidity and it is estimated that 3.7 per cent of the global disease burden is derived from poor water, sanitation and hygiene (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2004).

This health burden is primarily borne by the populations in developing countries and by children. At 2002 estimates, roughly one-sixth of humanity (1.1 billion people) lack access to any form of improved water supply within 1 kilometre of their home, and approximately 40 per cent of humanity (2.6 billion people) lack access to some form of improved excreta disposal (WHO and UNICEF, 2004).

These figures relate to the clear definitions provided in the updated Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment Report and are shown in Table 1.1 below. If the quality of water or sanitation were taken into account, these numbers of people without access to water supplies and sanitation would increase even further. Endemic and epidemic disease derived from poor water supply affects all nations. Outbreaks of waterborne disease continue to occur in both developed and developing countries, leading to loss of life, avoidable disease and economic costs to individuals and communities. The improvement of water quality control strategies, in conjunction with improvements in excreta disposal and personal hygiene can be expected to deliver substantial health gains in the population.