Water = Health

Poverty often leads to sickness, which in turn aggravates poverty—a vicious cycle that hinders economic and social development. Since human health depends on a host of factors associated with water, the ability to wash one’s hands and drink clean water can have major repercussions for the living conditions of a poor family. Women have an important educational role to play in this regard.

Today, 2.6 billion people do not have adequate water purification facilities. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 66% of the population has access to an adequate sewer system. In Asia, only 18% of the population has such a system, and in Africa the proportion falls to 13%.

Having access to enough clean water is a basic human right. When polluted, this vital resource can represent a grave threat to human health with enormous repercussions:

• According to the World Health Organization, polluted water is responsible for 80% of illnesses and 33% of deaths in developing countries.

• Every day, 6,000 people—mainly children under the age of five—die from diarrheal disease.

• If the trend observed between 1990 and 2002 continues, 2.4 billion people will still not have an effective purification system by 2015.

• Even in developed countries, water pollution has long-term effects on human health: infertility, blue baby syndrome, certain types of cancer and so on.

• In developed countries, only 5% of polluted water is purified.