AsianScientist (Apr. 1, 2016) – I’ve been thinking about water a lot lately. Out of a lifelong habit, I wake up every day and down at least 500ml of water. Every morning, there is my pink tumbler of water on my bedside table, waiting for me. It’s clean, and it came from the tap. It’s nothing short of a wonderful engineering feat how clean water gets from the environment, through the plumbing system to my kitchen and into my body.
Just by coincidence, I noticed that it was World Water Day last week on March 22nd. There seems to be a day for everything under the sun now: International Happiness Day, International Women’s Day, World Malaria Day, World AIDs Day, International Nutella Day. One of these is less significant than the others.
Water, water, everywhere; but not a drop to drink
Our bodies are primarily made up of water. The land that we live on is surrounded by water. We are told constantly to drink eight glasses of water a day to maintain good health.
Yet, 2.5 billion people still lack access to sanitation. Diarrheal diseases account for the deaths of 2,195 children every day, killing more than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
“What would you do if a jet plane of 300 children were to fall out of the sky every so often?” My professor would say in class.
Judging by the reactions of the world to recent aviation disasters MH370 and MH17, I would assume that all forms of social media would be set ablaze and Facebook would allow you to change your profile picture.
I find it difficult to believe that in 2016, in an age where access to the Internet has been declared a human right, we have come so far without finding an adequate solution for those without access to clean water and proper waste management facilities. More people have access to a mobile phone than to a clean toilet. As a result, so many are prone to a whole other host of infectious diseases (neglected tropical diseases are a subset of this). The thought is baffling.
We live in a world that spans three centuries: the 1800s, 1900s and 2000s. Some of the poorest parts of the world inhabited by the most number of people—South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa—exist without electricity and without clean water; conditions similar to those in the 1800s. Some other parts are dealing with a grave tuberculosis problem, a disease that has prevailed since antiquity: the ancient scourge.
But as we move further into the 21st century with the changing environment and availability of more health screenings, many parts of the world now bear the ‘double burden of disease’: the parallel healthcare onus of dealing with both communicable and non-communicable diseases. It is infinitely easier to treat one problem—either HIV, TB, malaria, neglected tropical diseases—and just totally choose to ignore the others.
Bringing sanitation back
The bald truth is, it is difficult to solve the problem of communicable diseases without exploring solutions in sanitation. The now legendary story of John Snow and the 1854 Cholera Outbreak tells us so. Essentially, people were dying in the Broad Street area (now known as Carnaby Street, famed for its shopping and Liberty of London), one by one like flies. Panic set in and people collectively thought that there was a foul air permeating the area—the prominent ‘miasma’ theory of the time.
Dr. Snow was skeptical. He mapped out deaths in the area, correlating cholera incidence with quality of water. His statistics and map persuaded the authorities to disable the Broad Street pump, the apparent epicenter of the highest incidence of cholera. Lo and behold, the epidemic soon ended thereafter. Sherlock-esque detective skills! Evidence-based policy decisions! A map pioneer! How exciting is this story. I digress slightly.
The truth is, water and sanitation are not commonly perceived as ‘sexy,’ ‘hot’ or ‘fundable’ topics that catch the attention of funders and investors looking to solve the problems of the world.
However, with the advent of mobile technology and billions of people having a mobile phone, there have been technological movements to solve the water and sanitation problem facing developing nations, located mainly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The basic idea is to roll out communication between governments and residents, to increase provision to underserved communities and to alert citizens about upcoming weather risks.
Mobile solutions to sanitation problems—shortened to mWASH—include the WASH SMS system, a communication and monitoring system to improve water and sanitation for the urban poor. The World Bank recently set up a hackathon in 2013 to encourage ideas among those living in developing nations to improve sanitation.
Whether this all works in the long run is a whole other story we’re going to have to watch. And I do think that John Snow would agree that sanitation is a vital issue we need to address more.
This article is from a monthly column called Our Small World. Click here to see the other articles in this series.
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Source: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
