Lack of access to safe drinking water contributes to the staggering burden of diarrhoeal diseases worldwide, particularly affecting the young, the immuno compromised and the poor. Diarrhea is when you pass three or more loose stools a day. When diarrhea lasts more than a few days, your body loses too much water and salt.
Nearly one in five child deaths – about 1.5 million each year – is due to diarrhoea. Diarrhoea kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined (1). Every 15 seconds, a child dies from poor water quality!
Drinking contaminated water also leads to reduced personal productive time, with widespread economic effects. About 88% of diarrhea-associated deaths are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and insufficient hygiene.
In many rural and urban areas of the developing world, household water- quality interventions can reduce diarrhoea morbidity by more than 40% (2, 3). Treating water in the home offers the opportunity for significant health gains at potentially dramatic cost savings over conventional improvements in water supplies, such as piped water connections to households (4) . Indeed, providing safe water, adequate sanitation and human waste disposal is one of the proven ways to save lives.
In Indonesia, nearly a quarter of all deaths amongst children under five are caused by diarrhoea disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nationwide more than 20,000 children in this age group die every year from diarrhoea.
A World Bank study shows that Indonesia loses 2.4 percent of its GDP annually that is Rp 423 trillion (US$38 billion) due to inadequate sanitation, poor hygiene and lack of access to safe water.
Fewer than half the population of 240 million people enjoys water from piped connections. According to the 2007 Millennium Development Goals report, only 30.8 percent of households in the cities and 9 percent in its villages have access to piped water.
References :
1. UNICEF and WHO. 2009. Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done
2. Ghislaine, R and Clasen, T. 2010. Estimating the Scope of Household Water Treatment in Low- and Medium-Income Countries. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 82(2), pp. 289–300
3. Fewtrell, L. et al. 2005. Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions to reduce diarrhea in less developed countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infectious Diseases (5): 42–52
4. International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group). Safe Water for All: Harnessing the Private Sector to Reach the Underserved
