Report: Water Diseases On Rise 

COLLEEN VALLES / AP 16aug02

SAN FRANCISCO -- As many as 76 million people--mostly children--could die from water-related diseases by 2020 if changes aren't made worldwide, according to a California think tank.

The United Nations has set a goal of 2015 for cutting in half the number of people who can't reach or afford safe drinking water. Even if that goal is met, 34 million to 76 million people could die of water-related illnesses, said a report for release Friday by the independent Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security.

More people die of diarrheal diseases, such as dysentery, than other water-related diseases, and children are extremely vulnerable to them.

"All of these diseases are associated with our failure to provide clean water," said Dr. Peter Gleick, director of the institute. "I think it's terribly bleak, especially because we know what needs to be done to prevent these deaths. We're doing some of it, but the efforts that are being made are not aggressive enough."

The problem is many people, especially those in developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, don't have access to clean water or basic sanitation, Gleick said.

While most of the deaths are projected to occur in developing nations, Joan Rose, professor of water microbiology at the University of South Florida, said every country is vulnerable. She pointed to a recent deadly outbreak of E. coli in Canada that came from a contaminated well.

"We look at our political agreements like NAFTA, and they've been economically beneficial to South America because we have allowed them to export their vegetables to the United States," she said. "But none of that finance has been reinvested in sanitation, and in fact, we may be getting vegetables ? we already have ? that bring diseases into the United States."

The United Nations says 1.1 billion people worldwide live without access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion lack proper sanitation.

The institute will send the report to the World Summit on Sustainable Development being held Aug. 26 through Sept. 4 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

• Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security
  www.pacinst.org 

Dirty Water: Estimated Deaths from Water-Related Diseases 2000-2020 

Pacific Institute Research Report

Peter H. Gleick
August 15, 2002

Abstract

The failure to provide safe drinking water and adequate sanitation services to all people is perhaps the greatest development failure of the 20th century. The most egregious consequence of this failure is the high rate of mortality among young children from preventable water-related diseases. This paper examines different scenarios of activities in the international water arena and provides three estimates of the overall water-related mortality likely to occur over the next two decades.

If no action is taken to address unmet basic human needs for water, as many as 135 million people will die from these diseases by 2020. Even if the explicit Millennium Goals announced by the United Nations in 2000 are achieved1 – unlikely given current international commitments – between 34 and 76 million people will perish from water-related diseases by 2020. This problem is one of the most serious public health crisis facing us, and deserves far more attention and resources than it has received so far.

source: http://www.pacinst.org/reports/water_related_deaths_report.pdf
            http://www.pacinst.org/reports/water_related_deaths.htm 20aug02