While 71% of the world’s population has access to clean water, according to the World Health Organization, at least 2 billion people use drinking water contaminated with feces or another substance.
Drinking contaminated water puts people at risk for the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, polio and more. It’s appalling and disheartening that to this day, there is no universal global access to clean drinking water. However, one of the WHO’s Sustainable Development Goals is to have universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, and access to clean water is a mission among many nonprofit organizations and agencies working with communities that lack it.
Lifewater, a Christian-based nonprofit focused on clean water access in four developing nations, has taken a holistic approach to solving the ongoing water crisis, explained its manager of program design and implementation, Elizabeth MacRae-Garvin. Lifewater works with local experts to develop software and hardware solutions. Software solutions involve behavioral changes that result from raising awareness through appropriate communications, while hardware solutions address problems using appropriate water and sanitation technology developed by engineers. For example, in rural Ethiopia, where the nonprofit has been working for 16 years, it’s conducted an analysis to determine the most appropriate water sources for communities, such as protected springs and drilled wells. Those sources continue to provide safe water access to communities that didn’t have water before.
In terms of the maintenance of wells, the organization addresses that by always developing culturally and locally appropriate solutions.
“The best solutions come from the community, so we work closely with them,” MacRae-Garvin said. To this end, the organization creates sustainability strategies to ensure water points are maintained long term.
When the problem of access to water in rural villages is solved, MacRae-Gavin said, women and children regain hours spent fetching water in rural communities all over the world.
“They are not spending hours in search of clean water. Therefore, they have time to partake in other community activities such as farming and selling crops,” she said. “The water challenge is one of the basic issues that we can address in a community to elevate their health status. Yet there is generational poverty and lack of consistent resources from governments. This adds to the ongoing challenges rural communities already face and therefore, this topic should be at the forefront of all healthcare issues.”
Several organizations, locally and internationally, are working on the advocacy and policy side of addressing water challenges. Sunrise Movement is one such grassroots organization, led by American youths to stop climate change and create millions of jobs. It organizes several campaigns throughout the year to raise awareness of key issues affecting our world.
One such campaign is in support of a congressional resolution, the Green New Deal, which encourages all nations to move toward clean and renewable energy by 2030. This is in an effort to halt the effects of the climate change crisis. The Green New Deal also includes the right to housing, health care — and water — among other things.
Amy Johnson, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement hub in Beaverton, said there are many issues of contaminants in U.S. drinking water resulting from aged infrastructure and lead in water pipes throughout the country.
“We need to continue to raise awareness around topics of water depletion, impact of dams and contaminated fish,” Johnson said. “Our hub is learning about many of these issues, how they show up locally and how the climate crisis will affect water availability in our region. Activists must be vigilant and pay attention to local decisions. Climate activists, if not already, need to become water activists, too.”
World Wildlife Fund works directly with the U.S. government in terms of influencing and promoting best practices related to management and governance for healthy freshwater globally. It also engages with international institutions such as the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and similar entities to design initiatives, said Sarah Davidson, director of water policy. Its focus has been in rural areas where the degradation of source water is a concern.
Industrial practices degrade our forest and ecosystems, and this affects water and how we obtain it. As a worldwide community, we should protect the environment, especially in terms of maintaining biodiversity.
Here in the U.S., the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is a good example of legislation that provides protection to rivers to keep them free flowing. In Zambia, World Wildlife Fund has worked with partners to map out free-flowing rivers, which will inform the location of water resource protection areas. This will protect rivers from industrial contamination, as well as other forms of disruption, including the formation of new infrastructure.
Anthony M. Spaniola, an attorney in Detroit, Michigan, and a founding member of the Need Our Water community action group in Oscoda, Michigan, has been working on fighting against per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, contamination in rural parts of his state for several years.
“This pollution and contamination will impact us for decades to come,” Spaniola said. “We must put a stop to it now.”
PFAS accumulation in the human body can lead to adverse effects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In drinking water, PFAS is localized and can be associated with a specific commercial or public sector facility, which releases contaminants into natural water bodies.
“In the town of Oscoda, most of the river, lake and groundwater is contaminated with PFAS, prompting health advisories against eating fish and drinking water from residential wells,” Spaniola said. “Additionally, this pandemic has made things difficult, when hand-washing has been emphasized throughout the duration. The pandemic has highlighted, more than ever, the need to have access to clean and safe water. I am even more passionate now about bringing awareness to this issue.”
An EPA spokesperson stated that the agency has developed drinking water standards for more than 90 contaminants. In the U.S., 92% of our communities meet all of the health-based standards. The EPA realizes its work is not complete. The agency recently finalized regulatory determinations for two PFAS chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, and proposed to expand monitoring of PFAS chemicals under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Additionally, the Biden-Harris administration has indicated it is committed to investing in domestic water infrastructure in order to close the water equity gap.
Most water systems are rural, according to the EPA; 97% of all public water systems are small and serve fewer than 10,000 people. Such systems face unique challenges, such as aging infrastructure, workforce shortages and increasing costs. They also have fewer users across which to spread costs, which makes operations and maintenance projects expensive. These systems, therefore, face challenges in providing safe drinking water within their communities.
The good news is that each year the EPA awards approximately $12 million to $15 million to nonprofit organizations to provide training and technical assistance to small public water systems located in urban and rural communities throughout the country. The training and tools enhance system operations and management practices while supporting the EPA’s commitment to protect public health and promote sustainability in small communities.
The EPA achieves this through partnerships and coordinated efforts among stakeholders across government, corporations, nonprofit organizations and local communities, a spokesperson for the agency said. These partnerships provide funds, address community needs and produce effective designs.
In order to overcome the challenges around water access and safety that continue across the globe, it will take a mixture of innovation through appropriate technology and advocacy through policy development and enforcement to solve the water crisis. Until then we, as a community, need to do our part to increase awareness around this very important topic.