It is universally accepted that water is life. Unfortunately, in so many regions in the world, access to clean water and even to any sort of water is a great problem for the local population. Such tendency is especially significant in developing countries. As a result, people must suffer from numerous problems connected to the absence of clean water. In the following paper, the issue of how the basic right of access to clean water can change the lives of people in developing countries throughout the world will be examined. Overall, it appears that clean water is necessary for good health and thus for any positive changes in people’s lives in developing countries.
First of all, speaking about the way clean water changes people’s lives, it should be stated that clean water is one of the most important things on the Earth for supporting people’s lives. Unless a human being drinks water, one will die in about a month or even earlier. In case there is still some kind of water available but the one of bad quality, people suffer from numerous diseases including bacterial infecting or being poisoned by any types of chemical wastes if they are contained in the local water.
Thus, the absence of clean water is the absence of good health. However, without good health, any discussions about improving people’s lives are not to be even initiated. It is well-known that health is the basis for economic development, scientific progress and any other positive achievements by people which are badly needed for improving living conditions in developing countries.
Further, to examine the dependence between having the access to clean water and life’s improvement for people in developing countries, a few examples will be addressed. The first one is from Africa which is considered to be the most afflicted region in the world when it is referred to the issue of having the access to clean water and to any water at all. Louisa Maria, a single mother from Mozambique, has seven children. Besides the severe poverty problem that her big family is to face from day to day, another issue is even more burning; that is to find clean water. As a result, all of her children suffer from diarrhoea. Louisa Maria shares her grief,
If you’re lucky you survive but if you’re not, you die. My son Joao suffers badly from diarrhoea. The last time he was affected, we had no money to go to the hospital so we used the traditional medicines for two weeks until he felt better (Bardon 2011, p. 32).
The other case which is very similar is from the country of Cambodia in Asia. Kmae and his wife have eight children. Apart from severe poverty, their biggest problem is in finding any water for cooking their meals not even mentioning clean water (The United Nations World Water Development Report 2003, p. 52).
The man has to walk around 4 kilometres each day in order to bring some water from a local pond for his family; however, this water is infected by the most varied bacteria causing severe health conditions. As a result, his family has to suffer from different diseases including diarrhoea, skin infections and many more. Finally, to compare the situation in those regions of the world where the countries are only developing, the example of Australia will be taken into consideration. In Australia, over 90% of the country’s population has the access to clean water.
That is why the country’s specialists in the area of public health service report very few cases of infections found in water and health problems related to them. However, the problem of chemical pollution is registered in some industrial areas which are inhabited by the poor population. To illustrate this problem existing in developed countries, the example of a man from an industrially-polluted area will be considered (Ong 2010, p. 15). Eric lives next to a huge chemical plant. The water in the neighbourhood is polluted by varied chemicals causing severe health problems. As a result of using such water, Eric was eventually diagnosed with stomach cancer.
Finally, evaluating the above-mentioned examples from the countries with different levels of development, it appears that clean water is a vital condition for the well-being of the country’s population. In case people consume bad quality water, they get sick. As a result, they are not able to participate in the process of improving their own lives and the life of their country to the full extent. Hence, they must suffer economically. In this vein, according to Kabukuru (2011, p. 78), the only vital condition for the significant improvement of the economic situation of Kenya’s rural inhabitants is their sufficient supply of clean water. The same conclusions are made by numerous development specialists around the world (Holston 2000, p. 13).
As a final point, clean water is a necessary condition for people’s health. Thus, a sufficient supply of clean water is a vital condition for the people’s lives improvement in developing countries. When the country’s population is no longer concerned by the problem of its survival, people may think about the economical and scientific development of their country.
References
Bardon, S 2011,” All I Want for My Children Is Clean Water. TROCAIRE APPEAL DAY 3 2011’, The Mirror (London, England), pp. 32-34.
Holston, M 2000, ‘Where Has All the WATER GONE’, Americas, pp.12-15.
Kabukuru, W 2011, ‘Kenya ‘Blue Miracle Worker’ to the Rescue: The “Largest Water Purification Project in the World without Government or Private Sector Funding” Has Been Launched in the Western Province of Kenya to Provide Safe Water at No Cost for the Next 10 Years for 4 Million People’, New African, pp. 76-83.
Ong, A 2010, ‘Saving Water, Saving Lives’, UN Chronicle, vol. 47, pp. 9-21.
The United Nations World Water Development Report. Water for People, Water for Life: A Joint Report by the Twenty Three UN Agencies Concerned with Freshwater 2003, Berghahn Books, New York.