[Islam-Online- Society]

A recent UN-backed report states that half of the world’s population does not have access to clean water. These unfortunate many are living in unsanitary conditions and are at a very high risk of disease.

The report contains shocking statistics such as the fact that some three billion of the world’s most destitute live in filth and despair, having no adequate sanitation. Of these three billion, one billion have absolutely no access to safe water. These people live in regions that are called “water-stressed” – where there is barely enough, or simply not enough, water for everyone. Most shocking of all may be the report’s conclusion that this situation need not exist.

It would take less than 25 years for every person on the planet to have clean water and better sanitation if all governments would make such goals a priority. Although something most of us take for granted, proper access to safe water is not treated as a basic right for many people. Improved water supply would have the added benefit of greatly reducing the spread of diseases such as typhoid and cholera.

Brian Appleton, a United Nations water expert, suggests that we look at these numbers in more comprehensible terms. He fights hard to force others to see the reality of 5,000 children dying every day from waterborne illnesses. “The equivalent of 12 jumbo jets of children die every day from sanitation-related diseases,” he says. “If 12 full jumbo jets were crashing every day, the world would want to do something about it – they would want to find out why it was happening.”

Globally, water supplies exist in abundance. However, the supply is unevenly distributed among and within countries. Major improvements must be made not only in improving the water supply itself, but also with the allocation of that water supply.

Waterways that are under the most pressure include China’s Yellow River basin, the Zambezi River in Africa, and Central Asia’s Aral Sea rivers. The issue with most of these waterways is one of irrigation. This water is not used primarily for drinking. If the situation continues as it is now, within a few decades, people will be hard-pressed to find enough water to both keep alive vital crops and livestock and still have enough left to drink themselves.

The situation has already reached critical proportions for these major waterways. The Yellow River in China has run dry for part of each year since 1995. In 1997, on 226 days of the year, the Yellow River failed to even reach the sea. On every continent, water tables are dropping. As this continues, the underground water reserves are being used faster than they can replenish themselves.

Much of the projected increase in water demand will occur in developing countries. Here population growth and growth in industry and agriculture will be the greatest. Adding to the crisis is water pollution. Polluted water means significantly less available safe water for the population. While water quality has steadily improved in the developed world, the situation in the developing nations is quite the opposite. Areas that are rapidly becoming more urbanized are the hardest hit by increasing water contamination.

Appleton knows that there are solutions to the problem, but he also knows that the clock is ticking. As the world population continues to explode, the opportunity for governments to catch up is slipping away.

The United Nations encourages governments to work on community-based initiatives to improve water conditions. Such initiatives have worked well in many countries. The projects are more cost-effective and successful than huge centralized government projects. Also, since so many of the world’s freshwater rivers run through more than one country, the solutions to the world’s water problems will have to be political as well as scientific.

Increasing the actual supply of water on the planet is an impossible concept, as is the idea of slowing population growth enough and in time. Better water management is key to preventing the problem from getting worse. In the short term, using water more efficiently will help dramatically. In the developing world, some 60 to 75 percent of water that is used for irrigation never reaches its destination, lost to evaporation or runoff. Although better water irrigation methods have been found, they are used in less than 1 percent of the world’s irrigated areas.

In the long term, the UN says governments must make water a significantly high priority and focus on reallocating water to whatever uses are more beneficial economically and socially. Consistent work on water efficiency techniques and pollution control is crucial. The solutions will be difficult, time-consuming and expensive. The alternative – there is none.