Perspective on Statistics: Worldwide 2-5 Million Children still die from unsafe water.
Posted on April 1st, 2010.
Excerpt from Dirty Water: Estimated Deaths from Water-Related Disease 2000-2020, Peter H. Gleick
Mortality from Water-Related Diseases
Deaths from water-related diseases are inadequately monitored and reported. A wide range of estimates is available in the public literature, ranging from 2 million to 12 million deaths per year (see Table 3). Current best estimates appear to fall between 2 and 5 million deaths per year. Most of those dying from water-related disease are small children struck by virulent but preventable diarrheal diseases.
Table 3: Estimates of Water-Related Mortality
Source Deaths per Year
World Health Organization 2000 2.2 million (diarrheal diseases only)
World Health Organization 1999 2.3 million
WaterDome 2002 more than 3 million
World Health Organization 1992 4 million
World Health Organization 1996 more than 5 million
Hunter et al. 2000 more than 5 million
UNDP 2002 more than 5 million
Johannesburg Summit 2002 more than 5 million
Hinrichsen et.al, 1997 12 million
Notes:
• WHO 1996. “Every year more than five million human beings die from illnesses linked to unsafe drinking water, unclean domestic environments and improper excreta disposal.”
• Johannesburg Summit 2002. “More than 5 million people die each year from diseases caused by unsafe drinking water, lack of sanitation, and insufficient water for hygiene. In fact, over 2 million deaths occur each year from water-related diarrhea alone. At any given time, almost half of the people in developing countries suffer from water-related diseases.”
• WHO World Health Report 1999. Statistical Annex. Totals of 2.3 million excluding several water related diseases.
• WaterDome 2002. “More than 3 million die from diseases caused by unsafe water.”
• Hunter et al. 2000. “Currently, about 20% of the world’s population lacks access to safe drinking water, and more than 5 million people die annually from illnesses associated with unsafe drinking water or inadequate sanitation. If everyone had safe drinking water and adequate sanitation services, there would be 200 million fewer cases of diarrhea and 2.1 million fewer deaths caused by diarrheal illness each year.”
• UNDP 2002. “We know it is the poor who are most affected, with 800 million people undernourished and 5 million dying each year because of polluted water, lack of sanitation, and waterborne diseases alone…”
• WHO. 1992. “Lack of sanitary conditions contributes to about two billion human infections of diarrhoea with about four million deaths per year, mostly among infants and young children.”
• Hinrichsen, D., Robey, B., and Upadhyay, U.D. 1997. “Water-borne diseases are “dirty-water” diseases—those caused by water that has been contaminated by human, animal, or chemical wastes. Worldwide, the lack of sanitary waste disposal and of clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing is to blame for over 12 million deaths a year.”
The failure to meet basic human needs for water is widely acknowledged to be a major development failure of the 20th century. Yet efforts to provide universal coverage for water and sanitation continue to be largely rhetorical and piecemeal. The price for this failure will be paid by the poorest populations of the world in sickness, lost educational and employment opportunities, and for a staggeringly large number of people, early death. Even if the official United Nations Millennium Goals set for water are met – which is unlikely given the current level of commitments by national governments and international aid agencies – as many as 76 million people will die by 2020 of preventable water-related diseases. This is morally unacceptable in a world that values equity and decency, but at the present time, it appears unavoidable unless we rethink our approach to providing water and sanitation services and redouble international efforts to aid those lacking this most basic of human needs.
from Dirty Water: Estimated Deaths from Water-Related Disease 2000-2020, Peter H. Gleick
Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security • www.pacinst.org
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