Module

1.1
1.1 Global Perspective

Location of BioSand Filter Installations

Over 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water and even more lack
access to proper sanitation. Potable water availability is decreasing as the
world’s population is increasing. A strong focus on low cost and
household water technologies is important to provide water to this
unlimited “market”. CAWST, through this training session, is attempting
to provide some of the necessary services to enable access to affordable
technologies.
Module 1.1 Global Perspective

1.1 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE .....................................................................................................................1

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS....................................................................................................................2
THE CHALLENGE – ACCESS TO WATER AND SANITATION........................................................................................2
RURAL VS. URBAN............................................................................................................................................4
DAILY REQUIREMENT.........................................................................................................................................6
WATER FACTS AND FIGURES..............................................................................................................................8
RESOURCES....................................................................................................................................................10

Millennium Development Goals

All 191 Member States of the United Nations have adopted the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG), with a pledge to meet them by 2015. The MDG set out specific
commitments aimed at improving quality of life for people all over the world. There are
specific targets related to water and sanitation, including:
• Halve by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe
drinking water and basic sanitation
• Integrate sanitation into water resources management strategies
• Have achieved by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100
million slum dwellers
• Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the mortality rate among children
under five

As well, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the period from 2005-2015
the International Decade for Action “Water for Life”. The Decade aims to set the world’s
agenda on the implementation of water-related programs and projects, while ensuring the
participation of women in water-related development efforts.

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ (Apr 05)

The Challenge – Access to Water and Sanitation

Some 1.1 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water, especially in poor rural
areas of Africa and in informal peri-urban settlements. The majority of these people live
in Asia and Africa. In Africa, for example, two out of five people lack improved water
supply. Additionally, water quality problems have grown more severe, as dangerous
levels of arsenic in groundwater emerged in several Asian countries during the 1990’s.

The goal of the first United Nations Decade of Drinking Water & Sanitation was to
achieve universal access to safe drinking water. During the 1990’s, an estimated 620
million more people gained access to a safe water supply and 435 million to sanitation
facilities. However, because of rapid population growth during the same time period,
almost one third of the world's population still lacks access. Despite laudable
achievements to meet these basic needs, there remains a tremendous backlog in terms of

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Module 1.1 Global Perspective

billions of unserved people, mostly the poor and marginalized citizens living in squalid,
unhealthy environments in developing countries.

People in the USA spend $8 billion a year on cosmetics and Europeans $50 billion on
cigarettes, yet the world cannot find the $9 billion the United Nations needs to give all people
access to clean drinking water and sanitation. 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water and
more than twice as many have no sanitation. More than 2 million die each year from such
diseases as diarrhea! The 225 riches people in the world have a combined wealth of over $1
trillion, equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 percent of the world’s people (2.5 billion).
To provide clean and abundant water to the world would cost an estimated $50 billion per year
for ten years spent on water and sanitation projects – wells, pipes, water purifying systems.
http://www.uwec.edu/geography/Ivogeler/w111/wwants.htm (Apr 05)

About 2.4 billion people, including more than half of all those living in Asia, still lack
access to improved sanitation, an estimated 80 per cent living in rural areas. Many
governments still do not give hygiene improvement high enough priority or provide
sufficient resources to reach the goal of universal access.

http://www.who.int/docstore/water_sanitation_health/Globassessment/GlobalTOC.htm (Apr 05)

Case Study
Tajikistan – Decreasing water Supply

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Historically, the communities of Khatlon province in southern Tajikistan used the waters of the
Vakhsh and Pyandj rivers originating in the Pamir glaciers, and most permanent settlements
were located along these rivers. In Soviet times, arid terraces in the river valleys were irrigated
to allow for agriculture. Towns and villages relied on a centralized piped supply of drinking-
water from groundwater sources. Despite significant wastage of water, most of the population
had access to safe water as defined by international standards.

By the mid-1980s, growing demand had outstripped groundwater capacity and it was
discovered that the source had been contaminated by the Vakhsh chemical plant. Work started
on a new water pipeline, but was left unfinished because of economic and political disruption.
In 1995, it was estimated that less than 10% of the rural population of Khalton province had
access to safe drinking- water and less than 5% to sewerage systems. For example, in
Gozimalik district, just 5% of the population had access to safe water and only 2% to safe
sanitation. In Jillikul district the situation was even worse, with 4% of the population having
access to safe water and no one with access to safe sanitation. The absence of clean water has
had a devastating impact on hygiene, especially in rural schools and hospitals. Health
education, although obligatory under the Soviet regime, has increasingly been neglected. The
results are evident in deteriorating child health. The infant mortality rate, which increased in
1993–1994, remains one of the highest among former Soviet countries.

http://www.who.int/docstore/water_sanitation_health/Globassessment/Global7-2.htm (Apr 05)

Rural vs. Urban

Significant discrepancies between rural and urban services contribute to the burdened life
in rural areas. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, almost 1 billion
people in rural areas are without access to improved water supply. The gap between urban
and rural coverage is greatest in Africa, where 56 per cent of people living in rural areas
still lack access to improved water, compared to 17 percent without coverage in urban
areas.

On the other hand, world-wide urbanization causes a great number of people to live in
informal, overcrowded peri-urban settlements where access to water and sanitation is
especially low. Extreme poverty and unacceptable living conditions in these settlements
are an affront to human dignity and have become an alarming problem.

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The above material was taken from the UNICEF web site.
http://www.unicef.org (2003)

Case Study
Urban Water Supply: the Guatemala Experience

Due to the war in the countryside and other factors, the slum population of Guatemala City has
grown in recent years to one million people, a number which was overwhelming the city's
municipal services. A very small proportion of dwellings have house connections and there are
few public standpipes - many people are forced to purchase water from private traders at a cost
of over 25 times that of the water supplied through the municipal network. With a programme

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initiated by the Inter-institutional Commission for Marginal Urban Areas (COINAP) and
assisted by UNICEF, a community cooperative in the slum of El Mezquital succeeded in
providing water to over 2,000 families through the construction of a local water system. Funds
collected from the beneficiaries will be used to operate, maintain and expand the system, or for
other community projects. There are three keys to this successful model: commitment to the
methodology of community participation - coordination among a variety of governmental and
non-governmental institutions with experience in the relevant techniques and skills and the
presence of a community organization willing to collaborate in improving their own local
conditions.

Source: Improving Water and Sanitation through Urban Basic Services Programme in
Guatemala: A Case Study, UNICEF WATERfront, Issue 7 (May 1995)

Daily Requirement
In 2002, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
recognized the right to water. The following criteria have been recognized, in that water
must be:
• Sufficient
• Safe and acceptable
• Accessible
• Affordable

The myth of free water for all

“Enshrining water as a universal human right that should be provided "free" is persuasive
rhetoric. But it is also a risky distraction that stands in the way of providing water for all.
Building, maintaining, and operating infrastructure to get water to households, pipes,
treatment works, and connections, costs money. There are only two sources of paying for
investments -- payments by users or payments by taxpayers. Only by charging those who are
served can services be extended to the unconnected. Tariff setting must include subsidies to the
poor. But, advocating free water for all means no water for some.”

-- By Jamal Saghir, Director, Energy and Water Department, World Bank

There is no absolute rule about how much water is considered sufficient. Twenty litres
per day is a commonly used and accepted figure. The WHO has recognized the service
levels detailed in the figure below. The minimum amount of drinking water needed to
prevent dehydration ranges from 2L to 4.5L (for people in hot climates who carry out
manual work), and most people need at least 2L per person per day for food preparation.
Significantly more water is required for other household activities, including personal
hygiene, laundry and cleaning. Where water is scarce these necessary activities are
jeopardized.

World Health Organization. (2003). The Right to Water. France.

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Service Level and Quantity of Water Collected

Source: Howard G, Bartram J. Domestic water quantity, service level and health.
Geneva,World Health Organization, 2003.

US Domestic Water Usage Figures

1) According to the U.S. Geological Survey, on average, each person in the USA uses 80 to 100
gallons of water per day.
2) Household water usage in the USA occurs in the following percentages and typical usage:

28% toilet flushes 3-7 gallons 4 flushes

22% washing machine 50 gallons laundry load
21% showers 3-8 gallons shower (5 minutes)
12% faucet usage 2-5 gallons brushing teeth (tap open)
9% baths 20 gallons bath (½ full)
5% toilet leakage
3% dishwasher 10-15 gallons dishwasher (once per day)

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Water Facts and Figures

• 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water, roughly one-sixth of
the world’s population.
• 2.4 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, about two-
fifths of the world’s population.
• 2.2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die every year from
diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and
poor hygiene.
• Some 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of access to safe
drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene – equivalent to 20 jumbo jets
crashing every day.
• At any one time it is estimated that half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by
patients suffering from water-borne diseases.
• The average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is 6 km
• The weight of water that women in Africa and Asia carry on their heads is the
equivalent of your airport luggage allowance (20kg).
• The average person in the developing world uses 10 litres of water a day.
• The average person in the United Kingdom uses 135 litres of water every day.
• One flush of your toilet uses as much water as the average person in the developing
world uses for a whole day’s washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking.
• Comparative costs: In Europe $11 billion is spent each year on ice cream; in USA and
Europe, $17 billion is spent on pet food; in Europe $105 billion is spent annually on
alcoholic drinks, ten times the amount required to ensure water, sanitation and hygiene
for all.
• In the past 10 years diarrhoea has killed more children than all the people lost to armed
conflict since World War II.
• In China, India and Indonesia twice as many people are dying from diarrhoeal diseases
as from HIV/AIDS.
• In 1998, 308,000 people died from war in Africa, but more than two million (six times
as many) died of diarrhoeal disease.
• The population of the Kibeira slum in Nairobi, Kenya pays up to five times the price
for a litre of water than the average American citizen.
• An estimated 25% of people in developing country cities use water vendors purchasing
their water at significantly higher prices than piped water.
• Projections for 2025 indicate that the number of people living in water-stressed
countries will increase to 3 billion – a six-fold increase. Today, 470 million people live
in regions where severe shortages exist.
• The simple act of washing hands with soap and water can reduce diarrhoeal disease by
one-third.
• Following the introduction of the Guatemalan Handwashing Initiative in 1998, there
were 322,000 fewer cases of diarrhoea each year amongst the 1.5 million children
under 5 nationwide in the country's lowest income groups.
• In Zambia, one in five children die before their fifth birthday. In contrast in the UK
fewer than 1% of children die before they reach the age of five.

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• A study in Karachi found that people living in areas without adequate sanitation who
had no hygiene education spend six times more on medical treatments than those with
sanitation facilities.
• Waterborne diseases (the consequence of a combination of lack of clean water supply
and inadequate sanitation) cost the Indian economy 73 million working days a year.
And a cholera outbreak in Peru in the early 1990s cost the economy US$1 billion in
lost tourism and agricultural exports in just 10 weeks.
• Improved water quality reduces childhood diarrhoea by 15-20% BUT better hygiene
through handwashing and safe food handling reduces it by 35% AND safe disposal of
children’s faeces leads to a reduction of nearly 40%.
• At any time, 1.5 billion people suffer from parasitic worm infections stemming from
human excreta and solid wastes in the environment. Intestinal worms can be controlled
through better sanitation, hygiene and water. These parasites can lead to malnutrition,
anemia and retarded growth, depending upon the severity of the infection.
• It is estimated that pneumonia, diarrhoea, tuberculosis and malaria, which account for
20% of global disease burden, receive less than 1% of total public and private funds
devoted to health research.
• Ecological sanitation is one option being practised in some communities in China,
Mexico, Vietnam, etc. Excreta contains valuable nutrients. We produce 4.56 kg
nitrogen, 0.55 kg phosphorous, and 1.28 kg potassium per person per year from faeces
and urine. This is enough to produce wheat and maize for one person every year.
• One gram of faeces can contains 10,000,000 Viruses, 1,000,000 bacteria, 1,000 parasite
cysts, 100 parasite eggs.

http://www.rehydrate.org/water/index.html (Apr 05)

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Resources
The following web site contains the publication entitled “Global Water Supply and
Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report”. It was prepared by the WHO, UNICEF and the
Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council. It was compiled to provide a
snapshot of water supply and sanitation worldwide at the turn of the millennium using
information available from different sources. Many documents and publications after
2000 frequently quote the statistics that it contains.
http://www.who.int/docstore/water_sanitation_health/Globassessment/GlobalTOC.htm (Apr 05)

UNICEF is the leading advocate for children’s rights, active in 158 countries and
territories around the world.
This web site shows the goals and work activities by UNICEF in countries around the
world. It also provides individual country statistics for water and sanitation.
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html (Apr 05)

This site lists many of the publications that are available through UNICEF.
http://www.unicef.org/publications/index.html (Apr 05)

This web site is from the Rehydration Project. It includes a counter to show how many
cases of diarrhea there are today and how many deaths due to diarrhoeal disease there
have been so far today!

In the year 2002, about 2.2 million children will die of dehydration caused by
diarrhoea.80% of them in the first two years of their life; 42,000 a week, 6,000 a day, four
every minute, one every fourteen seconds.
http://www.rehydrate.org/diarrhoea/index.html (Apr 05)

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