Globally, clean water access is tied closely to proper sanitation as this is what often contaminates the drinking water. According to the CDC:
" An estimated 801,000 children younger than 5 years of age perish from diarrhea each year, mostly in developing countries. This amounts to 11% of the 7.6 million deaths of children under the age of five and means that about 2,200 children are dying every day as a result of diarrheal diseases."
http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/global/wash_statistics.html
Did they really say 2,200 children are dying a DAY from diarrheal diseases!!!! I did not realize the issue was that critical, that is unbelievable.
Besides lack of sanitation affecting the water sources, another issue with the water is pharmaceuticals drugs being improperly disposed of and being excreted into our water supplies. Currently water treatment centers do not have the ability to remove the pharmaceuticals from the water. With the abundance of people taking daily medications for high blood pressure, cholesterol, depression and even birth control pills, there is alot of contaminants entering the water. Is this just an over exaggeration? Well, I think that this statement summed it up for me:
"Even though current water contamination levels are measured in parts per million or parts per billion, there is no way to know just how much exposure people are actually experiencing. People drink contaminated water, shower in contaminated water and cook with contaminated water, so it's illogical to suggest that there's no harm being caused by widespread exposure, even at "low" does, especially when the exposure is a combination of dozens of different drugs that have never been tested in combination."
Research conducted on aquatic life has found that fish are experiencing reproductive problems, having damaged sperm and even changing sexes (male to female and female to male)! Does any of this sound familiar in our society? Well I leave you with the article for further reading!
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/029314_waterways_contamination.html#ixzz26cwPkHtk
Very interesting and terrifying! This made me question how clean our water really is. How can it really be filtered and cleaned entirely? I tried to imagine caring for children without healthy clean water and it would be very distressing and difficult. There would always be fear for what illness or effects it may have on them.
ReplyDeleteYes, it would be difficult and I would imagine for the children to even begin to learn when their health is compromised by the water. It was shocking to find out about all the stuff in our water here in the U.S. where one thinks that we are safe. No more trusting tap water!
DeleteHello Ana
ReplyDeleteThis information is an eye opening. Sometimes we just trust that everything will be sanitized, and the water is not contaminated. I have the tradition that even when the water coming out the faucet is potable water, I would buy water. Still this is not a guarantee that the water is clean from chemicals or contaminated materials. I've heard of water companies being sued for selling contaminated water, so is not always 100% sure that you are drinking good water.
I would be afraid to be feeding my baby things that she could become sick. Now I will be back to the routine of boiling water to kill all the bacterias. I loved reading this post. Thank you for choosing this topic. Rhonna
Please read the article and look into it more, it does not seem that boiling the water solves the problem of the pharmaceuticals! I am very concerned after learning about this and looked further into it and am considering buying a filter for the water, not just drinking water but also for the shower/bath. Also yes one of the articles state that the bottle water needs only be as clean as tap water, so that is not really helping people as much as we would like to think. I'm glad you found the information useful.
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