How can we work together to ensure everyone has access to safe drinking water?

Question

Clean water is a necessity for life. More than a billion people don't have access to safe drinking water. How can we work together to fix this?

Answer 1

Safe drinking water is so basic to life, but the solution will involve much.
My pipes froze a few days ago and my father asked,
"How will you brush your teeth?" I reminded him that I had lived
in a village in Africa for over 3 years as a Peace Corps Volunteer
and that for me, here in America, one evening without water in
my home could be readily overcome/resolved. So, to answer your
question, I think there are three keys to this solution.
1) Here in America, we need to not take so much for granted.
We fret over gas prices, traffic jams, and cell phone interferences,
while others struggle with basic day to day matters of life and death.
I think we need to get a little more outside of ourselves and reach out
with support versus manipulation or force.
2) People living in areas without adequate water need to
practice safer habits. The entire village I lived in used the
very same river for laundry, bathing, travel, and drinking
water. When mothers had their little ones squat to
use the river as a toilet, my attempts to teach otherwise
were in vain -- education is key.
3) If technology can send folks to the moon and do
MRIs, we have the wisdom to build wells and such,
but communities MUST buy into it themselves. When
things such as wells are just built/paid for instead of being
built by a community, it rarely lasts. Simpler is better,
because it's easier for a community to realistically maintain.
And training must accompany anything new.
Methods for boiling, filtering and otherwise treating water
must be more wide spread as well.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

There are many things we must do to ensure clean water:

1) Factories using water must have filtration systems BEFORE it leaves the plant. Also while we are on about factories, how about scrubbers on the smoke stacks so the pollution does not cause acid rain?

2) Have people try to recycle the clean water that they use. This can be done by providing the technology to place in homes water purification systems.

3) There is now the technology to turn salt water from the oceans and seas into fresh water. Although it may still be expensive, the price has been coming down as better methods are constantly being discovered.

We, as people can do this together. If everyone instead of letting their water run when brushing your teeth or shaving, had more baths and less showers used smart toilets which use less water to flush than the old ones would help tremendously.

We are all responsible for our planets' resources and water, as much as people do not think much about, is our most precious and will be the oil of the 21th century if we are not careful.

Answer 4

Everyone?
Keep it clean and renewable.
Conservation; the worlds nations must work together on this.

Also if "everyone" means Life, please consider that polluting, damming and otherwise non sustainably getting water means no water soon for most animals, poisoned water for plant life.
Purifying will not fix anything for the other mammals.

This actually effects natures own purifiers, the ones that have been working all these years without our help.
Relying on purification is a big part of the problem.
It keeps people ignorant to the worlds most pressing issue.
Safe water is in a ways a renewable resource that can be renewable only if not exploited for short term gain.
According to natural laws, we can not keep taking from our aquifers and polluting the water and still expect to have any safe drinking water for almost anyone in the near future at a reasonable cost in energy.

Unfortunately,the very worst culprits to pollution and waste are the same that will go into denial when I say this, and the same ones who would imagine themselves having(and of course deserving)purification systems and the last clean water on earth.

I hate to say, I think the main answer is deal with ignorant selfish people somehow, and curb the population of the overcrowded species before it takes out its own ability to survive.

Answer 5

There are many parts to the question. All over the world, there are many arid regions where people would like just *any* sort of drinking water. The only way this can be tackled is if there are efforts to conserve water and then to make sure that the population in the region is based on the water resources available in the region.
However, a problem that should be more amenable to a solution is to keep the water that is available safe. Reducing pollutants etc. is one part of it. Another is to make sure that the water resources are not contaminated by ecological terrorists - whether for drinking or agriculture. I know this is just the problem. Solution is possible only when every citizen is determined to preserve the water (and air, food,land) quality.

Answer 6

There really is an easy answer to that but not an easy solution. If the water is unsafe for drinking, then find somewhere close to that area that has safe drinking water and pipeline for the others to have. Again, it could be a great solution, but it would cost to pipeline and so forth. Or maybe a better way could be to have thousands of water jugs sent to the place in question and have the people go to where it is safe for drinking and get real water to last a while. Again, wishful thinking. But I say that pipline idea would be the best choice, and I think that even our government would agree piping water from one place to another once is easier then worrying about safe water forever.

Answer 7

Technology has come a far way in water safety to include emergency type systems that are cost effective. The easiest way would to distribute some of those Water Bottles that have a filtration system built in. The one I purchased actually will last for 1,000 gallons and only cost $19.95. If this was for a third world country or a low income area I would think the manufacture would give a volume discount for large orders. In addition, fund raisers could be made in conjunction with these companies. Example this is a big deal in California (Earth Quake Preparedness). These devices were originally designed and used in the US Military. Since the 1989 Quake California and Emergency Preparedness Companies have been turning out more and more useful equipment, food for long storage(emergency rations), water decontamination devices from my small device to 50 gallon drums that do the same....

Lastly, we need to control what we are dumping and have way stiffer penalties including jail and huge fines for the notorious company's in nuclear and biological waste. This should also include policing these company's in other Countries. The United Nations could be used in this capacity.

Answer 8

In China, where I'm living, a land of dying rivers, most probably reflecting the same kind of environmental degradation being carried out in all our countries, householders use two kinds of water. 1)The water from the tap, which, if drunk, will almost guarantee death from an array of deady diseases, is used for cleaning. It's cheap and affordable for most people. 2) Delivered bottles of purified water, used for drinking and cooking. This is more expensive and affordable by most if not the very poorest.

Back in Australia, where I am from, this dichotomy of water use is beginning also to become the norm.( I can recall, only as recently as the 1980's that we didn't even have to boil tap water to make it drinkable.)

Most of us, you and I, can't directly control what others are doing to our water, like farmers, factories etc. allowing chemicals they use to run off into the rivers or leech into subterranean water tables. We can only focus on arousing the political will of politicians and making such groups as farmers and factory owners aware of the long term degradation to their bank balances.
However, you and I do have complete and direct access to what happens in our own homes :

1) Limit the time you take for a shower and still feel you have had a good soak at the same time. Are you doing some things under the shower that you can when you have turned the taps off. For example, I used to shave in the shower. Since I've stopped that practice, I have shaved off around 10 minutes of actual shower time. ( I wonder how this translates into actual gallons of water ?)

2) I have stopped using a sprinkler in the garden. I wait till sunset or later, when in the heat of summer, to give my prize roses and fruit trees a good hosing knowing that I won't loose any of the water through evaporation. I also know that the root structures are not burnt - a real danger when the heat of the sun is pounding down. I have also developed what I feel is an intimate relationship with MY trees and plants. (No, I haven't started talking to them yet !)

3) I have stopped using washing-up detergent that requires that the plates, pots and cutlery need a good rinse after the wash. I use plain old laundry soap - no added chemicals or scents. What's the difference, it's still soap. After the wash, I rinse every thing in a large bowl filled with water rather than under a running tap. That rinse water now, is just the thing my plants and trees will enjoy. I never use an automatic dishwasher. These are absolutely evil water guzzlers.

What's my point ? By conserving water you are also addressing the problem of access to safe drinking water.

I challenge the other 3 million people on the planet that do enjoy access to safe drinking water to add one more suggestion to my list.

Answer 9

All over the world, there are many arid regions where people would like just *any* sort of drinking water. The only way this can be tackled is if there are efforts to conserve water and then to make sure that the population in the region is based on the water resources available in the region.
However, a problem that should be more amenable to a solution is to keep the water that is available safe. Reducing pollutants etc. is one part of it. Another is to make sure that the water resources are not contaminated by ecological terrorists - whether for drinking or agriculture. I know this is just the problem. Solution is possible only when every citizen is determined to preserve the water (and air, food,land) quality.

Answer 10

It will not happen unless the government in those areas makes drinking water a priority. Water treatment plants are not cheap. Fund raisers could pay to build the facility, but where will money come from to keep it running? Are roads available that are safe enough to use for transporting the necessary chemicals?

The focus should be on convincing other leaders that having safe drinking water for everyone is important. While aid can help in the mean time, it is not a viable long-term solution.

Answer 11

I have recently seen some TV programs that showed third world country's that have wells dug and to make the water run there are these wheels that the children like to push and and play on and this pumps the water, it has been a great thing. But also people need to be educated, in some countries they are bathing and using the bathroom in the same water they are drinking out of. If I were rich I would like to help people get drinking water. Maybe Oprah could put some of her money towards this problem. As for me I give to a charity that helps people here in USA and all over the world and that is all I can afford.