Access To Water Essay

Water is, and has always been, a basic human necessity and one with which no individual can survive without for a significant period of time. This is an irrefutable fact and because of this, there is little doubt that if water resources were horrifically depleted, conflicts between countries would arise, as would increased prevalence of illness, overpopulation in areas with water and general impoverishment from failing agriculture. With these effect, serious additional issues would be triggered and the state of the world would, both in terms of peace and general health, would be in serious jeopardy. These personal -yet commonly shared- beliefs, allow me to unequivocally support the idea that access to water is a more pressing issue than such …show more content…
With only 3% of the world’s water being fresh water and less than 1% being readily available, access to such sources is nearly impossible for many and extremely difficult for most. With this, many individuals in impoverished countries, where fresh water levels are especially low and access to filtration systems is extremely rare, will frequently turn to contaminated waters in order to drink, cook and clean. This use of contaminated water in any way is extremely dangerous regardless of one’s location, but for many in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, access to proper medical services is also typically limited. The combination of these two facts will often lead to a “recipe for disaster” or, to put it realistically, will lead to a common situation where death is often imminent. Typhoid, Hepatitis A and E, Cholera and Scabies are just a few diseases that are common results of consuming or bathing in contaminated water sources. These water borne diseases are solely transmitted by an infectious agent, making them non-transmissable from person-to-person, and therefore a lifestyle disease that is the product of one’s environment. This proves that depleting water resources means that more people will turn to inadequate and contaminated sources of water that can lead to an increase in the prevalence of lifestyle diseases, which is considered …show more content…
Without adequate quantities of fresh water, agriculture will fail and livestock will die. For a country like Malawi, which I studied in-depth in terms of its poverty, this means that, not only will the population be extremely reliant on food imports, but the vast majority of the country’s population will not have a steady form of income. These Malawians, as well as individuals from other countries likely to be in a similar situation, will be required to find other consistent sources of income that do not rely on access to water, which are typically only found in larger metropolitan areas. While the cause of the migration towards more populous cities may have been different, this overall scenario is very similar to what occurred in Bangladesh a few years ago when flooding ruined coastal agriculture and destroyed homes, forcing 10 to 30 million Bangladeshis to be displaced. Currently, around 1.2 billion individuals around the world live in areas of “physical water scarcity,” with that figure continuing to rise as global warming causes significant water pattern changes that, in turn, lead to less precipitation. These 1.2 billion, if their ability to access clean and fresh water is not improved, could also one day be