by David Nuttle

Created on: March 31, 2010   Last Updated: April 01, 2010

For a period of five decades, I engaged in assorted assistance and development activities in 42 developing nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as doing some work with the rural poor in the U.S.  Based on my personal observations, notes, and studies related to water issues, I can confirm that the United Nations' (UNICEF's) estimates of 4,000 to 5,000 deaths daily (an average of 4,500 lives per day) -due to inadequate access to safe water and sanitation - is probably very accurate.  Based upon study of this critical health hazard, for a period of years, my list of causes are as follows:

1) Global warming, desertification, deforestation, extensive pollution, increased crop irrigation, growing populations, changing rainfall patterns, inadequate means to store water when available, a general shortage of safe sanitation facilities, and the fact that less than 3 (three) percent of all water is fresh, all contribute subject problem(s).  

Throughout the history of this planet, several major civilizations have failed due to water shortages and/or inadequate sanitation.  There have been many conflicts caused by water shortages, and the recent conflict in Darfur (in the Sudan) is known to have started due to prolonged drought and severe water shortages there.

2) UNICEF estimates that 1.9 billion people are generally lacking in safe sanitation, and they therefore pollute their sources of fresh water with human waste containing viruses, bacterium, and parasites that are the primary cause of the number of deaths being reported.

UNICEF reports that over 800 million of these people are known to be living on the brink of starvation, so their general health conditions are already poor when they drink water polluted with human waste.   

Most of these populations lack the education needed to make them aware of the critical need for sanitation. With incomes of less than U.S.$1 per day, for most of these people, they do not have the necessary funds to provide sanitation facilities even when they become aware of the need.

3) Populations lacking adequate potable water and sanitation generally tend to be socially, economically, and politically isolated from the nations in which they reside.  The leaders of those nations often tend to retain power by corruption and force of arms, so they have no real reason to care if these politically isolated populations live or die. 

Loans and grants donated

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