Learning objectives: To examine the factors influencing access to safe drinking water

Why is safe water access important? What are the implications of lack of access to clean water and sanitation? How does this affect development? How could this influence the MDGs?

Safe Drinking Water “potable”

Where in the world has examples like this?

Afghanistan - war Chad – civil conflict Horn of Africa - drought Papua New Guinea – remote rural population http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL4wJAOaKhc In PNG, 85% popn lives in hard to reach rural areas. Lack of infrastructure = 4.2M without access to clean water. This is 3/5 of popn. In Chad, 25% popn have no access to clean water. Poor sanitation (5%) leads to contamination. In Afghanistan, 27% popn have no access to clean water. Poor infrastructure from war.

Decreasing access to clean water - Ethiopia 9/10 households does not treat their drinking water. Great disparity in ‘improved sources’: 95% in urban areas, 42% in rural regions. Sanitation is mirrored: 88% urban, 56% rural. The government's budgetary allocation to the water sector has been decreasing over the years, "declining almost by half - from 4% in 2006 to 2.5% in 2010“ (WaterAid). http://water.org/country/ethiopia/ Decreasing access to clean water – China Toxic spill of cadmium into Liu River (Liuzhou). Cadmium is a carcinogen – levels are 8 times higher than ‘safe’. 6 metal companies and one mine suspected. 300 tonnes of aluminium chloride added to the river to dilute. Private stores of bottled water cleared. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/jan/30/cadmium-spill-china-river Decreasing access to clean water – Bangladesh http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/02/17/salinity-intrusion-in-changing-climate-scenario-will-hit-coastal-bangladesh-hard Salinity in Bangladesh's coastal areas has increased, causing a lack of drinkable water. Current level 20 pp1000; human body tolerates 5pp1000. Women in coastal areas need to travel miles to collect a pitcher of safe drinking water. Environmental refugees from erosion too. For coastal areas the amount of arsenic in the groundwater is also very high. Deep wells required (over 150m deep). Double-up with Horn of Africa Drought (Hazards)

Increasing access to clean water – drastic measures in the Middle East Per capita supply falling from 200m3 to 90m3 in 30 years. Only Turkey has surplus but unwilling to share. 19 of 21 Yemeni aquifers no longer replenished. Libya spent $20bn pumping unreplenishable wells. 1500 desalinisation plants in Mediterranean and Gulf; 2/3 world’s desalinated water (expensive and GHG emissions). Concentrated salt streams contaminate aquifers and kill marine life. Masdar (sustainable eco-settlement). Grass verges on highways replaced with concrete. Environmental Awareness Clubs – inter school competitions to reduce water consumption. 2000 mosques in Abu Dhabi have water saving devices (reduces consumption by 4 million gallons per year). The UAE, which includes Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has started to build the world's largest underground reservoir, with 26,000,000m3 of desalinated water. It will store enough water for 90 days when completed. The reasoning is that the UAE is now wholly dependent on desalination to survive. Increasing access to clean water – local scale A personal LifeStraw unit should be able to purify about 1,000 litres (2.7 litres a day) meaning that it will last a year before it needs to be replaced. There are no replacement parts; users must get a new unit each year.