Access To Clean Water In The United States

Clean water, something many can just go to their kitchen faucet for in the United Stated but in countless countries this is not the case. Pollution, over-population, and poverty, “the three P’s” are just some of the reasons that access to clean water is not available moreover without proper knowledge and medical treatment this atrocity has become systemic. Lurking in want can posse as clean water parasites, e-coli, and dysentery to name a few can lay waiting for an unsuspecting victim. As light is shed on this global epidemic more aid pours in, along with organizations dedicated to helping theses forgotten, a fight for the forgotten. With the help of nurses and commonly used nursing practices the belief is that illness due to knowledge deficit

Half of the world's hospital beds are filled with people suffering from a water related disease. In these developing countries, about eighty percent of ailments are connected to neglected water and sanitation settings. One out of every five deaths under the age of five worldwide is due to a water-related disease (World Health Organization). It is estimated that nearly ten percent of the global disease burden could be reduced through improved water supply, sanitation, hygiene, and water resource management (UN Water). Ninety percent of the deaths due to diarrheal diseases are children under five years old, mostly in developing countries (UN Water). Diarrhea is more prevalent throughout the developing world essentially due to the lower levels of access to safe drinking water and cleanliness among the community, along with poorer overall health, and nutritional status (UNICEF, WHO). An estimated four thousand children under the age of five die each day from diarrhea globally (World Health Organization). The water crisis has claimed more children than measles, malaria, and HIV combined (UNICEF, WHO). These are just few frightening facts about the global water

Just under half of the population has access to a developed water supply, and only twenty one percent of the population has access to adequate sanitation facilities.

In pastoral Ethiopia, young and old alike walk up to four hours to collect water. Most people collect water from shallow, exposed watering holes which they share with all sorts of creatures. Other people collect water from shallow wells. Both of these sources are subject to pollution as rain water washes waste from adjacent areas into the source. The containers women use to carry water back to the community weigh up to forty pounds. Often, younger children are left at home while their parents and older siblings collect water as the men are at work.

In the last thirty years, Ethiopia has experienced frequent droughts followed by food shortages and mass starvation. During these times of scarcity, water-related diseases flourish in poor underdeveloped communities. As surface water sources such as ponds and natural springs dry up. Residual water sources are severely contaminated by ecological waste, such as human and animal excrement, which is washed in when it does rain. The stagnant water serves as a breeding place for mosquito