Clean Water Is A Tough Reach For Half Of The World’s Population
A report by the United Nations Organization also reveals that the problem is not limited to drinking water, but also encompasses sanitation and hygiene. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), if the world is able to reverse this situation, almost 1.5 million lives could be saved. The numbers are from a study that used data from 2019, entitled Burdens of Disease Attributed to Poor Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Conditions.
The lack of access to these basic services mainly exposes the most vulnerable population to various diseases such as cholera and diarrhea, in addition to impacting school and professional performance and even leisure time. In Brazil, according to data from the Ministry of Regional Development, almost half of people do not have access to water and sewage networks, while access to drinking water is not enough for about 40 million Brazilians.
Environmental engineer Mirian Yasmine Niz, a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Biosystems Engineering at the Faculty of Zootechnics and Food Engineering (FZEA) at USP, says that effluents, that is, sewage generated by a certain population, end up falling into a river or body of water, whether pre-treated or not. Sanitation is defined as a series of measures that make an area healthy, clean and habitable.
Considering sewage, sanitation would focus on the adequate and appropriate treatment of these effluents to prevent that, when released, they cause any type of degradation to the water body (streams, rivers, lakes or beaches). “This degradation would be linked to the dissemination of contaminants that may include bacteria, viruses, pathogens that cause diseases that spread through water”, clarifies Mirian.
The relationship between water and sanitation
The specialist comments that there is no way to talk about water without talking about sanitation. Water quality and available quantity are factors that directly interfere with the availability of the resource for the population. When there are problems with sanitation, there will also be difficulties with supply.
The lack of adequate sanitation can deteriorate the quality of water resources that today serve to supply different populations. “It is important to highlight that, when talking about water resources, it conveys the idea that water is at the mercy of our use, when in reality it is essential for many other forms of life on the planet”, completes Mirian.
Public sanitation policies
In Brazil, it is not new that public policies were created with a focus on sanitation, such as law number 11,145/2007, known as the National Sanitation Policy and also the National Sanitation Plan, which began in 2008 and ended in 2013, says the specialist.
More recently, in 2020, the federal government updated the Sanitation Legal Framework, established in 2000 by law number 9,984/2000, with the objective of universalizing sanitation, that is, offering adequate conditions for all.
The update also foresees serving 99% of the population with drinking water and 90% with adequate sewage collection and treatment by December 31, 2033. For Mirian, the objectives are vague and it takes a lot of optimism to think that in ten years these numbers will be reached. “Talking about achieving these goals, but not talking about problems such as the population being spread out irregularly, is a bit utopian”, she adds.
Therefore, in addition to the political and economic aspect of sanitation, the specialist highlights the importance of the educational and cultural issue. “The transmission of information enhances the struggle and control, since this is a chronic inspection problem. If the population is more aware of the impacts they may suffer from the lack of sanitation, they can fight for what is their right”, concludes Mirian.