It’s important to note that a water source needs to remain completely unpolluted to minimise the danger of deaths and illness. Unfortunately though, in some developing countries, it can be difficult to ensure that water is clean enough to reach satisfactory standards. In African and Latin American regions, it’s common for some water supplies to only reach a restricted amount of the population, or for the water to only be accessible inconsistently. For families who are dependent on drinking water, this can be impractical, and so the purpose will be changed substantially to processing waste or for the use of cleaning, both operations that can have contingencies if the supply becomes inaccessible.
Ultimately, water that is processing waste is not going to be consumed by the public. Because of this, the pollution levels can be higher because it won’t affect the water’s overall capability to treat the waste. Both the World Health Organisation and UNICEF have different quality levels for water which set different pollution limits as benchmarks for its safety. Whereas a water supply may have a large percentage of contaminants, an ‘improved’ version of the same stream may have fewer pollutants. This doesn’t render the water completely safe to drink, instead, it just means that may be suitable for use for bathing water instead of conventional human consumption.
Better regulation is needed of water sources that are used for human consumption to prevent waterborne diseases; including the scrutiny of water quality, the levels of pollution and its suitability for daily use by families. Unfortunately, many countries do not have the resource or the technology to do this at present.
Ultimately, water that is processing waste is not going to be consumed by the public. Because of this, the pollution levels can be higher because it won’t affect the water’s overall capability to treat the waste. Both the World Health Organisation and UNICEF have different quality levels for water which set different pollution limits as benchmarks for its safety. Whereas a water supply may have a large percentage of contaminants, an ‘improved’ version of the same stream may have fewer pollutants. This doesn’t render the water completely safe to drink, instead, it just means that may be suitable for use for bathing water instead of conventional human consumption.
Better regulation is needed of water sources that are used for human consumption to prevent waterborne diseases; including the scrutiny of water quality, the levels of pollution and its suitability for daily use by families. Unfortunately, many countries do not have the resource or the technology to do this at present.
