In
2000, just 10 years after the end of the Water and Sanitation Decade,
the lack of access to safe water remains a problem for more than a billion
people in the developing world. Annually, 2 to 3 million children less
than 5 years old die of diarrheal diseases, a large proportion of which
are acquired through exposure to contaminated water. In addition, after
39 years, the 7th pandemic of cholera continues unabated, claiming the
lives of a high percentage of children and adults who acquire the disease.
There are a number of reasons for the persistence of these problems in
spite of the investment of billions of dollars in safe water by donor
agencies and governments. Population shifts from rural to urban areas
have stressed existing water and sanitary infrastructure and exceeded
the capacity of most countries to keep up with demand. Large population
dislocations caused by armed conflict and natural disasters have created
enormous logistical problems in providing water and sanitation services,
as have dispersed populations and poor transportation infrastructure in
many rural areas. While larger scale projects, such as the construction
of deep wells or piped water systems, remain an important objective of
many development agencies, a shortage of time and resources will leave
hundreds of millions of people without access to safe water into the foreseeable
future. To help bridge the enormous gap in developing countries between
populations served by existing water projects and those most in need,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pan American
Health Organization developed the Safe Water System, a simple, inexpensive,
adaptable, and flexible intervention that employs technologies appropriate
for the developing world.
In
2000, just 10 years after the end of the Water and Sanitation Decade,
the lack of access to safe water remains a problem for more than a billion
people in the developing world. Annually, 2 to 3 million children less
than 5 years old die of diarrheal diseases, a large proportion of which
are acquired through exposure to contaminated water. In addition, after
39 years, the 7th pandemic of cholera continues unabated, claiming the
lives of a high percentage of children and adults who acquire the disease.
There are a number of reasons for the persistence of these problems in
spite of the investment of billions of dollars in safe water by donor
agencies and governments. Population shifts from rural to urban areas
have stressed existing water and sanitary infrastructure and exceeded
the capacity of most countries to keep up with demand. Large population
dislocations caused by armed conflict and natural disasters have created
enormous logistical problems in providing water and sanitation services,
as have dispersed populations and poor transportation infrastructure in
many rural areas. While larger scale projects, such as the construction
of deep wells or piped water systems, remain an important objective of
many development agencies, a shortage of time and resources will leave
hundreds of millions of people without access to safe water into the foreseeable
future. To help bridge the enormous gap in developing countries between
populations served by existing water projects and those most in need,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pan American
Health Organization developed the Safe Water System, a simple, inexpensive,
adaptable, and flexible intervention that employs technologies appropriate
for the developing world.
