Women and girls are the biggest victims of Third World’s tainted drinking water
Third World women and girls
are the biggest victims of
tainted drinking water, the
AGM of the Ontario Pollution
Control Equipment Association was
told February 2. OPCEA members
heard these and other thought-provoking
statistics along with some astonishing
benefits from inexpensive, yet
appropriate, water treatment technologies.
The data were given in a powerpoint
presentation by Tony Petrucci, P.
Eng., of Earth Tech Canada.
Water is the most common substance
on Planet Earth yet only three
percent is freshwater. Even with this
small percentage, two thirds of Earth’s
freshwater is locked in glaciers and
polar ice caps. Water use statistics
world wide include: household or
domestic use – eight percent; industry
and energy – 23 percent; agriculture –
69 percent.
Only a meager one percent of global
water suppies is available for human
consumption, Mr. Petrucci stressed.
Using a Water for People powerpoint,
he gave some shocking data on diseases,
fatalities and hardships resulting
from inadequate and tainted drinking
water supplies in the Third World. It
was often, and erroneously assumed,
that poor people could not afford, or
would not pay for, treated drinking
water. The reality was that drinking
water was often sold by vendors who,
seemingly, emerged out of nowhere
pushing handcarts laden with plastic
vessels to peddle water of dubious
quality. Somewhat macabrely, some of
these water carts were nicknamed the
‘cholera wagons.’ Yet this untreated
water, sometimes lethal, was priced
from five to fifty times more than was
paid outside their settlements.
Annual per capita water use
(Cubic metres (1 cu.metre = 264.2 US gallons))
The burden falls harshly on women
and young girls who often spend hours
each day collecting water depriving
them of the opportunity of income generating
or domestic work. When clean
water becomes available with appropriate
technology, villagers don’t have to
pay premium rates; this results in less
money spent on doubtful water and
more money for food, soap and clothing,
three other life saving commodities.
The powerpoint included a powerful
quote from Peter Voicke of the
World Bank, who, in 2003, pointed out
that more people were likely to suffer
and die from tainted drinking water
that year – and this decade – than from
all armed conflicts combined!
The powerpoint showed that even
simple techniques such as stand-pipes,
hand washing stations, arsenic filter
technology and hygiene education are
inexpensive, yet highly effective in
curbing the lethal effects of unsanitary
drinking water. Even OPCEA members,
long familiar with the toxic ravages
of water pollution, were clearly
shocked at the extent of the suffering
caused by drinking water problems in
the Third World.
Water for People was created by the
American Water Works Association in
1991. Water for People-Canada was
established in 1995.
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