The human body contains 70% water, which is present within every single cell in the body. Water is an essential building block for all organisms. However, not everybody is fortunate enough to have access to clean water. Children in developing countries die due to either lack of access to water or drinking contaminated water. According to UNICEF, 760,000 children died in 2011 along from consuming contaminated water. And according to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, 768 million people live on unimproved water, a type of water containing high levels of pathogens and thus unsafe for drinking.
Risk factors in normal childhood include poor water, sanitation, and hygiene. A major health implication of drinking dirty water is contracting diarrheal diseases such as cholera and environmental enteropathy. Both chronic diarrhea and enteropathy cause stunted growth, both physical and mental, due to poor nutrition absorption, and therefore they are detrimental to young children. Environmental enteropathy leads to chronic anemia and growth failure in children. Therefore, children not just experience stunted growth and diarrhea but also face iron deficiency. Further, children drinking contaminated water are exposed to roundworm, hookworm, lymphatic filariasis, Hepatitis A, B, E and F, jaundice, and typhoid, some of which are lethal to children.
Some key solutions to this urgent problem include piped water, privatized water supply, and in-house water treatment, but these are difficult to achieve in developing countries, the countries that need such solutions the most. In this regard, there is an urgent need to come with cheap but effective solutions to keep children away from dirty drinking water.
Y.S. Hong
