The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security - Unu-inweh ...

Introduction
Clean and safe water is an important resource in building healthy and progressive communities. By widening and enhancing
access to clean and safe water, nine percent of the global burden of disease can be alleviated and 3.5 million deaths
can be prevented annually (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2008). The socio-economic impacts from the prevention of water-related
deaths and diseases are tremendous; for each US $1 invested in improving access to water, communities reap benefits
in productive time and avoidance of treatment costs worth between US $2-$12 (Edwards, 2011).
Today, safe water supply evades some 780 million people, or approximately 11% of the world’s population (UNICEF and
World Health Organization, 2012). From an overall perspective, this is a marked improvement from 1990, where almost
one-quarter of the global population did not have access to clean and safe water. However, these improvements were
mostly made in East and South Asia; countries in the sub-Saharan Africa and Pacific regions still lack adequate access, with
each region registering water supply coverage of 61% and 54% respectively (UNICEF and WHO, 2012). It is no coincidence
that cholera, a disease that thrives where there are deficits in water and sanitation, is prevalent in both these regions 1 .
As efforts continue to connect the growing global population to safe water supply, considerations need to be afforded to
demographic, economic and social pressures. These pressures not only affect access, but also the quantity and quality
of water supplies. Mounting pressures could cause increases in a country’s virtual water need, that is, the water used to
produce goods and services. Higher consumption of virtual water not only affects the sustainability of access of communities
already linked to water supplies, but also the availability of water to communities that have not gained access to water
as resources are diverted to meet other existing demands (see Box 1 on Water Shortages in China).
This paper examines the linkages between water security (in terms of quantity and quality) and human health, summarizes
potential health impacts from water deficits, and examines the implications for socio-economic development.
Box 1. Water Shortages in China
China faces water shortages from the singular and interactive effects of high water losses through supply
infrastructure, effluent contamination, and rising water demand from the agricultural sector. These shortages
greatly affect food production, the largest water user in China (constituting 71% of China’s total freshwater
demand) (Amarasinghe et al., 2005).
As a workaround solution to fulfill domestic demand for food, China has begun to establish farms in Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, Kenya, Russia and Zimbabwe (Economy, 2011). China’s virtual water consumption has clearly
grown, but the burden of meeting this demand has been shifted to other countries.
1. Water Quality and Health
Rivers, lakes, and aquifers are vulnerable to pollutants, which intensify the occurrence of water-related diseases by impairing
water use, and introduce new health risks associated with the presence of pollutants in the human body. Pollutants can
be broadly categorized as human-induced, or naturally occurring. Human-induced pollutants enter waterways through
unmitigated discharge of untreated or insufficiently treated domestic and industrial wastewater (point sources), and
agricultural run-off (non-point source). Pollutants that occur naturally, also termed geogenic pollutants, are usually found
in groundwater. The concentration of geogenic pollutants in groundwater resources may be aggravated by human activities
that infiltrate or fracture the surrounding rock or substrata.
1 In 2009, of the 206,183 cases of cholera reported worldwide, 98.7% cases occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, with the remainder occurring in the
Pacific (World Health Organization, 2011b).
Water and Health Security
Part 2
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