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

In many urban and semi-urban areas, treated or partially treated wastewater is used for irrigation. The UN World Water
Development Report 2003 estimates that approximately 10% of total irrigated land in 50 countries is irrigated with raw or
partially diluted wastewater (UNESCO, 2003). Untreated wastewater contains pathogens, many of which can survive in the
environment, on crops and soil, and enter the food chain posing health risks to farmers and their families and consumers
in nearby communities (see also Box 2 on Contaminated Crops in India). But wastewater also contains nutrients that are
beneficial for crop production, reduces the requirement for adding chemicals and fertilizers, and contributes to water and
nutrient conservation. While it is true that the use of wastewater for irrigation has its advantages in terms of providing
a low-cost source of water for food production and for use in urban and peri-urban areas in water-scarce regions, it is
important to ensure that the costs of the health risks do not outweigh the benefits.
Water-borne or water-related diseases such as diarrhea, which is widely prevalent, can cause long-term damage to
households and the local economy. Individuals suffering from these illnesses are unable to work, study or provide for
their dependents. Illness in the household also increases the work burden of caretakers, particularly women. Chronic or
long-term water-related diseases are aggravated by poverty, and in turn cause heavy economic and welfare losses to the
individual and the household. At an aggregated level, particularly in developing regions or in countries that have limited
or inadequate health care provisions, the local or national economy could be adversely affected by the loss of productive
manpower and public health costs. The Economics of Sanitation Initiative 2 of the Water and Sanitation Programme of
the World Bank estimates that the annual economic losses from inadequate sanitation amount to between 1%-2.5% of
GDP, with the majority of these costs coming from premature deaths, including in children under the age of five (Water
and Sanitation Programme, 2012).
Conclusion
The implications of inadequate water security, whether in terms of access, quantity or quality, are of great concern. Clean
and safe water is the keystone to healthy ecosystems and healthy communities as prolonged exposure to pathogens and
toxic elements will negatively affect human populations and ecosystem biota. An important step towards improving and
safeguarding public and ecosystem health would be to include and monitor health-based targets, for both humans and
ecosystems, along with economic targets in political and government agendas. Government leaders and finance ministers
need to understand the relationship between clean and safe water, improved health and GDP. Political will combined
with behaviour change of users and consumers and a change in attitude and mindset of decision-makers is necessary to
ensure that national priorities for water use and allocation take into account public and ecosystem health.
2 The Economics of Sanitation Initiative studies conduct quantitative and qualitative assessments of the impacts of poor sanitation on health, water,
tourism, and other welfare impacts. The impacts stem from well-established links between: sanitation and disease incidence; water pollution, which
also affects the productivity of water resources by way of lower fisheries output; productivity in work and school; and a country’s attractiveness as
a tourist destination. Health and water resources contributed most to the overall economic losses estimated in the study. Poor sanitation, including
hygiene, caused at least 180 million disease episodes and 100,000 premature deaths annually. The resulting economic impact totalled more than US
$4.8 billion per year (Water and Sanitation Programme, 2012).
82 The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security Issue