Why Clean and Easily Accessible Water Matters

At Healthy Hands Initiative, our uniting belief is that all communities deserve secure access to clean, potable water. Although not always transparent, insecurity in clean and accessible water is not solely a public health concern but also a larger challenge posed against human rights and equity.

Regrettably, over 1.1 billion today have inadequate access to water and 2.6 billion live without access to basic sanitation (Tarrass, 2012). It is expected that the demand for water will grow over 40 percent by 2023, increasing the stress on already burdened water systems (Tarrass, 2012). To protect current populations and shield future generations from the short- and long-term impacts of water insecurity, we are obligated to act now.

Without clean water, health risks first begin to prevail in communities deficient in accessible, clean water, yet failure to address local water crises can soon impose a multitude of economic, social, and psychological challenges that radically lower communities’ living standards. How are these challenges manifested in communities currently battling water crises?

Well, health outcomes in areas deficient in clean water often entail increased rates of waterborne, pathogenic diseases, namely diarrhea. In low-income countries, diarrheal diseases transmitted through unclean water caused nearly 1.5 times deaths than malaria (WHO, 2016). Children, alone, bear a disproportionate 84 percent of the global burden of diarrheal disease annually (Tarrass, 2012).

In the midst of pathogenic diseases, social impacts of water insecurity begin to add on to the growing challenge of families. Namely, poor water supply can contribute to heavier workloads on older children ages 9 and up as they are pressured to travel farther distances to access water and transport it back home – a situation in which females are disproportionately impacted (The Water Project, 2020). To further complicate the growing challenge, novel economic implications gradually turn conspicuous, where poor health – ensuing longer times searching for water sources – perpetuates long-lasting poverty.

On the bright side, however, we can combat the underlying cause of these growing challenges: that is, establishing sustainable clean water for target communities. This is precisely why he Healthy Hands Initiative exists.