Water safety and quality - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages Access to safe and quality water as a basic human right has proven to be challenging worldwide, let alone in the developing countries, but also in the developed nations.Safe and quality water is important for the health of people in any society to prevent risks of diseases and ensure proper sanitation and hygiene. Water safety and quality is a health concern and serves to enable people access pure, clean, and uncontaminated water for their healthy drinking. However, to facilitate effective quality drinking water, it requires intense coordination from public water treatment systems, in-plant water consumption together its distribution process and the general attention to external weather related issues in the environment (Doyle 5). Water is freely provided by nature, but it does not mean that all water available is safe for consumption. Even the fresh water sources from the ground, which most people in the rural areas rely on, could be unsatisfactory for health standards. What hinders water safety and quality: Pollution is the major case that governments and organizations have to take precaution on. Water pollution is caused by the daily activities in a wider range; from domestic functions, industries and plants use and discharge to the general public care of its environment. According to the United Nations (1), the growth in population and changing climatic conditions continue to be affected by the decline in water quality. Nations’ economies and the global life of the living organisms are at stake in the absence of quality safe water. Pollution from human settlement: Areas where the population density is high will always have a problem in sanitation and disposal of waste products if not well controlled. Despite the effort made so far, there still exist towns and municipalities without proper ways of disposing the societies’ household waste (“Human Impacts,” keystone.edu). People living in slums have limited resources that have to be shared equally by all. Faecal contamination (both in humans and animals) is one challenge affecting safety of drinking water and it leads to a spread of health illnesses to millions of people in the world (UNICEF unicef.org). Lack of enough toilets and proper identified locations, to deposit their domestic waste limits the societies’, and water environment health standards. The sewage and waste come into contact with the water supply systems hence affecting the water quality. Pollution from industries: Industries use the water in their cleaning, processing, and cooling systems. In the end, the waste water effluent consists of different kinds of chemicals, both organic and inorganic, which if released untreated, increases the level of arsenic compounds in the water bodies over time. Referring to the United Nations, industries are associated with the increase of solvents, toxic substances, heavy metals, and chemicals dumped into the water bodies among other wastes (2). People end up using the water not knowing the content of dangerous compounds that exist. The water that comes into contact with such effluent automatically becomes unsafe for use. People are used to bathing in the beach and rivers thinking that the water is safe even for their swimming. Although people have an irresponsible behavior of urinating in the water, there are other invisible hazards identified in large water bodies where they go swimming. According to a sanitary and safety investigation, water bodies and especially in the beach, may portray presence of toxic contaminants, medical infectious waste, sewage, wastewater discharge, petroleum products, and floatable debris if measured (nyc.gov). Pollution from agricultural activities: Nowadays, farming makes use of chemicals in almost all stages of crops growth and livestock production. In USA, fertilizer and manure run off is the main issue in water pollution (UN 2). Animals are feed on manufactured products that are made using chemicals, cleaned in chemicals ...Download file to see next pagesRead More