WASH

WASH is the common term used to refer to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene.  These three issues often go hand in hand.  When toilet facilities and treatment do not exist, that leads to cross contamination of water sources.  Fecal matter in drinking water leads to many, many illnesses that kill many people every day.  Every twenty seconds a child dies from a water related illness - this is the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.  3.4 million people die each year from water related illnesses.  And, for some additional perspective, more people have a mobile phone than access to a toilet.  These statistics are astounding.  How many of us daily think about how we should be thankful when we use the porcelain? Or where everything goes after it circles its way down that tiny hole? 

Beyond the biological water borne diseases that contaminate water, heavy metals are another huge challenge.  South East Asia seems to be especially challenged by such contaminants - most discussed seems to be arsenic.  So, from where do these contaminants come?  First, some of these contaminants do occur naturally in the soil, often they are in water deposits deep below the surface.  As the water tables drain globally, we must drill deeper and deeper.  From my limited reading, one argument seems to be that deeper water deposits are more likely to be contaminated with heavy metals.  Some of this contamination also comes from industry pollution of our water sources- waste water from mining, smelting, and processing that may contain these compounds.  Additionally, some fertilizers that were at one point used to produce a greater yield, over time, have led to a build-up of toxins in the soil.

As our world population in many areas increases, our waste will also continue to increase and arguably the contaminants we add to the system will also increase.  While these challenges exist in areas of the United States and other 'developed nations,' there is a disproportionate impact on the developing world.  There is less infrastructure to handle run-off and waste, fewer restrictions exist on the use of chemicals and environmental protection procedures, there is less ability to enforce restrictions that are on the books, and often there is a greater demand for compromising long-term effects for short-term financial gains.  Example- when half your population is unemployed and a huge company offers to come in, employ your people, and provide an increase to your GDP, you are more likely to look the other way as they drain your water resources and dump pollutants in your communities.

As a short term solution, water filtration and treatment becomes incredibly important.  With so many people dying daily, providing safe water is critical.  A few of the current filter designs that are being used on small scale include:


Life Straw - This video shows how to use Lifestraw Family - one of the filters available for small scale filtration - these are the ones we distributed when I was in Ghana.  The biggest issue folks seem to have is with very dirty water over a prolonged period of time leads to clogging.



Sono Filter - This link is not in English but the visual I found helpful.  Basically, what they are explaining is the contamination of Arsenic and other compounds.  The sores the various people have are from Arsenic poisoning.  The concept is you pour the contaminated water in the top and the contaminants are filtered out, making the water safe for consumption. This is one of the few systems that does work for heavy metals, which are a unique challenge to biological contaminants.



P&G packs - These little packs transform contaminated water into clean drinking water.  The link has a great little video that shows how it works.


Solvaten Water System - Is another solution which has been proposed, this time using the heat of the sun to treat contaminated water.