First Published in tce (News and Views from the process industries, published monthly by the Institution of Chemical Engineers) http://www.tcetoday.com
Wendy Laursen Reports on successful humanitarian and engineering collaborations for securing clean water supplies for all.
Leaders from 189 countries met in New York in 2000 to reaffirm their commitment to the principles of human dignity and equity.
One of the specific Millenium Goals outlined at the time was to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015. Subsequently, in 2003, the years 2005 to 2015 were proclaimed as the International decade for Action, “Water for Life”.
Individuals and organizations around the world are working to achieve this goal but there is still the potential for those with science, engineering, marketing or communications expertise to save millions of lives.
Water related diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, trachoma, hepatitis, and intestinal worms afflict millions of people worldwide. Approximately 1.8m people die each year from diarroheal diseases alone. This equates to about 5000 deaths a day or one death every 15 seconds, 90% of which are children under the age of five.
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