Water & Sanitation

Water is at the heart of the stranglehold that poverty and disease have on the developing world. One of the greatest problems of the 21st century is that of water quality and in turn water management.

In 2003 it was calculated that 25,000 people are dying every day from malnutrition and that 6,000 people (most of which are children under five years old) are dying from water-related diseases.

It has clearly been identified that certain aspects of water resources management need to change, following the United Nations Millenium Declaration, which aims to stop unsustainable resource exploitation and to develop water management strategies at regional, national and local levels, promoting both equal access and adequate supplies.

Water, as everyone knows, is essential for life, but it also plays a key role within industry, in terms of industrial projects, generating power and moving people and goods. These are all key aspects in creating a fully functioning society.

The need for water is an issue that has been known and taken for granted for some time now; despite being highlighted, the need for availability and access to freshwater is now one of the most critical resource issues facing the world.

Increased consumption

In a 2000 UN Environment Report, it was predicted that the global water cycle was unlikely to adapt to the demands of the next few years; this has since proven to be true. Water consumption has in fact doubled in the last 50 years, with a child in the developed world consuming 30-50 times the water resources consumed by a child in the developing world.

Meanwhile, the quality of water supply in the developing world is now getting worse with diarrhoea, infectious diseases and worm infections claiming the lives of more people every day and good sanitation seen as key to aiding the prevention of scabies and trachoma.

The water challenge posed in the developing world forms part of the wider task of achieving sustainable development.

Water quality and availability has a wider impact on general health, playing a crucial role in food production, the problem of malnutrition and enabling rapid recovery from illness.

Creating communities

The issue of water is often also a starting point for community initiatives, the universality of the issue bringing people together to work on further projects. Sanitation often provides an excellent starting point for poverty discussions, with particular focus placed on the wellbeing of children. Inadequate water access forms a central part of poverty, affecting core needs such as health, food security and basic livelihoods.

A number of new approaches towards to tackling poverty have been employed by international organisations, important in terms of water development, as part of an overall natural resource management spectrum.

Water is one of the five capabilities identified by the United Nations Development Programme as being crucial to the developing world, alongside literacy, life expectancy, availability of health services and the proportion of underweight children aged five or under.

Vulnerability

People living in the developing world are open to health threats, droughts, floods, cyclones and pollution. A need has been identified to integrate vulnerability reduction into water policies – this has also been linked to disaster migration and climate change.

An assessment of the environmental, social and health impact of water resources development has provided the opportunity for environmental management plans, health promotion and protection and social safeguards.

Integration

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is widely accepted as a starting point for water policies. However, these policies need to be adapted to the needs of the poor, not integrated at the expense of the key issues (such as drinking supply, irrigation and threatened eco-systems).

The importance of partnerships between stakeholders has been stressed to aid meeting the challenge of the global water crisis, with the role of water recognised as part of the Millenium Development Goals

The Water Development Program

One potential solution to the global problem of water sanitation comes in the form of the new Water Development Program, a project set up to bring to market an environmentally friendly, biological and non-chemical solution to the contaminated water problem affecting so much of the developing world, from humans to livestock to fish and agricultural projects.

The Water Development Program brings to the market two revolutionary products:

• One-Drop – designed to decontaminate water at the point of use, for smaller-scale personal consumption
• Bacsan – designed for larger scale use in polluted reservoirs, rivers and other water sources

The Water Development Program aims to provide safe drinking water for all, free of Algae, Bacteria, Bleach, Chlorea, Chlorine, Ecoli, Bilharza, Fungi and other water-borne diseases, improving the quality of the water supply for those tendering arable land and dealing in livestock, as well as the quality of life for those dependent on water in polluted areas.

Products are derived from a non-hazardous no-chemical solution produced magnetically through the formation of ions in the water, free of harmful chemicals and toxins. The purification qualities found are similar to those of mineral salts – the best natural water purifier know to mankind. They also act as a sterilising agent, know to possess healing qualities.

The beauty of the products developed by the Water Development Program is in the simplicity of the production process. With no need for complex or expensive machinery to produce ionised water, the products can simply be added straight from the bottle to contaminated water.

For more information, please visit the Water Development Program website.