Water Quality and Environmental Health - Essay Example

Water Quality and Environmental Health Water is the most valuable natural resource that exists on planet earth. Over 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. Most of the Earth’s water is in the oceans (97 per cent) or locked away as ice. The largest volumes of freshwater are stored underground as groundwater, accounting for about 0.6 per cent of the total. Only a small portion (0.01 per cent) is present as fresh surface water in lakes, streams lochs, reservoirs, ponds, rivers canals, ditches, coastal waters and estuaries.

Unfortunately, it is the only proportion which is very important for humans and other terrestrial organisms. Water is also vital as a habitat for both freshwater and marine plants and animals (Vale, 2006). Pollution of the surface water is one of the global concerns. While in many less industrialized parts of the world, diseases from inadequate water supply and water contamination are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, in United States the concerns towards this precious natural resource is quite different.

There are more than 53,000 community water systems providing water to the public in the United States. Public water suppliers process 38 billion gallons of water per day for domestic and public use. Approximately 1.8 million miles of distribution mains carry water in the United States and Canada. About 800,000 water wells are drilled each year in the United States for domestic, farming, commercial, and water testing purposes. Typically, households consume approximately 30% of their water for outdoor use, such as watering the lawn.

Inside, toilets use the most water, with an average of 27 gallons per person per day (AWWA, 2006). The availability of freshwater to meet the demands of a growing and increasingly affluent population while sustaining a healthy natural environment is based on several factors such as availability of good quality water, the high costs of developing additional surface-water supplies, the importance of reliable supplies of high-quality water for human and environmental health and economic development; and the shortcomings of institutions for allocating scarce supplies in response to changing supply and demand conditions (Frederick, 1995).

The differences between developed and developing countries are many, but few have greater impact on human welfare than the availability of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Water- related diseases and illnesses exact devastating impacts on mortality and morbidity; prospects for economic development are also decreased by the diminished health of the labor force and the countless hours spent transporting water for drinking and other domestic uses from distant and often contaminated sources.

Microorganisms in municipal drinking water supplies have led to several outbreaks of water- borne disease in the United States. Crytosporidium in Milwaukees water supply resulted in some 400,000 serious illnesses and 50 deaths in the spring of 1993. Just before Christmas 1983, contaminated drinking water in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania caused an outbreak of giardiasis -- a common diarrheal disease -- that left 6,000 people ill and forced 75,000 others to obtain more expensive alternative sources of drinking water.

Though the federal agencies have taken adequate steps for treating polluted water resources and recharging ground water resources, water pollution remains a major threat. Recent droughts in the western and southeastern regions of the United States have resulted in considerable economic and environmental losses. Even in the absence of drought, tens of millions of dollars worth of potential hydropower production was sacrificed in the Colorado, Columbia, Missouri, and Sacramento river basins when water was allocated for the preservation of fish and wildlife.

Chemical plants, pulp mills, steel factories and all manner of other manufacturing concerns dumped more than a billion pounds of toxic chemicals into America’s rivers, lakes, streams, bays and coastal waters. Though we recognize the fact that water is the most important natural resource, we pay no attention to it by polluting this precious resource. It is essential to divert our attention to water-management to ensure that maximum benefits will be obtained from use of water resources. This has become more evident, because, in addition to the need for an adequate water supply, water-quality conditions need to be suitable if supply and demand is to be kept in balance.

ReferencesAmerican Water Works Association (AWWA), 25 Facts About Water 16 Feb. 2006, Frederick, K.D. Americas Water Supply: Status and Prospects for the Future Consequences Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1995. 16 Feb. 2006, Vale, J. Water Quality, 2006. The Environment Agency, 3 Jan. 2006,