It is known to all that water is the foundation on which human beings live and develop, it is indispensable for food, clothing, and transportation in human life. It is no exaggeration to say that there is no life without water for that water is an indispensable substance in animals and plants and human bodies. Without food, people can live for about two months, but with no water, people can only live for a week or so. In addition, water is an important raw material for both industrial and agricultural production.
However, a lot of us may not know that due to the backward economic or outdated infrastructure, millions of people, most of whom are children, die each year from diseases related to insufficient water supply, sanitation and personal hygiene.
Here, I’m going to discuss something about the sixth goal of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals–CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION.
Why it matters?
This goal is really meaningful, significant and relevant to you and me and even all human and I will discuss why in the following article.
Present Situation
Here, I will list some relevant data collected from the official website of UN.
Billions of people now face challenges every day in accessing the most basic services, including access to water, sanitation and hygiene.
Sources of drinking water used by about 1.8 billion people worldwide (a quarter of the world’s population) are contaminated with feces and about 2.4 billion people (one third of the world’s population) have difficulty accessing basic sanitation services, such as toilets or latrines.
More than 80% of sewage produced by human activities is discharged into rivers or oceans without any treatment, causing pollution.
Moreover, food security, livelihood options and even educational opportunities for some poor families are affected adversely by water resources shortage, poor water quality and inadequate sanitation in some places especially some underdeveloped areas of the world. In some of the poorest countries in the world, people suffer from hunger, malnutrition and some other diseases due to drought.
41 countries were short of water resources, and 10 of them had almost exhausted renewable fresh water resources and had to rely on unconventional water resources in 2011. At the current time, water scarcity affects more than 40% of the world’s population and with climate change and global warming becoming more and more severe in recent years, this figure is predicted to increase in the future. This issue deserves our attention.
Effects we can make
If this issue is properly addressed, we can help a lot of people and even the development of the economy. Here I will list a few effects of this issue.
Water and sanitation-related illnesses continue to be the leading cause of death among children under the age of five; more than 800 children die each day from diarrheal diseases related to poor sanitation. If these children can be provided sufficient clean water and good sanitation, I think the number above may decrease significantly, fewer children would die because of the unclear water and bad sanitation.
we are also able to carry out industrial and agricultural and energy production more efficiently and contribute to economic growth by managing our water resources in a sustainable way. In addition, we can protect aquatic ecosystems and their biodiversity and take steps to address growing climate change.
Actually, we can make far more differences to the world with proper water and sanitation than I list above. Clean water and sanitation are significant factors in a lot of fields such as diet, health, agriculture and industry, which means that to address this issue is a very meaningful and crucial goal for human beings.
The price we would pay if not correct the problem
The costs are huge both for people and for the economy.
More than 2 million people worldwide including a lot of children die each year from diarrheal diseases which are mainly caused by poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water
Ignoring water governance and sanitation can cause severe economic losses. For example, failure to invest in drinking water and sanitation has led to a 4.3% reduction in GDP in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank estimates that India’s GDP has fallen by 6.4% because of the adverse economic impacts and insufficient sanitation.
Millions of people will continue to die each year and there will be further losses in biodiversity and ecosystem resilience without better infrastructure and management which can provide better sanitation and cleaner water resources. weakening prosperity and efforts to achieve a more sustainable future. This will make it more difficult to achieve the goals of a more sustainable future.
What can we do?
Here I will list some measures which can help achieve this goal.
Strengthening infrastructure construction
At the current time, even in many Chinese rural areas, many people defecate in the open air due to lack of sanitation which would lead to disease transmission and environmental pollution. So it can be imagined that the situation is even worse in many less developed regions such as some parts of Africa. Governments should improve sanitation facilities to provide basic sanitation services for people.
Governments also need to build more sewage treatment facilities to deal with the increasing sewage which will lead to severe water pollution if discharged into rivers or oceans without any treatment.
Strengthening environmental and sanitation awareness
Currently in some areas, especially underdeveloped areas people’s awareness of environmental protection and hygiene is poor which has caused pollution and disease transmission. The outbreak of the new coronavirus in Wuhan is partly due to hygiene and sanitation issues, we must take these issues for serious.
Government should strengthen publicity and education of environmental science knowledge and popularize good personal hygiene habits to make people aware of the importance of water conservation and good hygiene.
Improve water efficiency across industries
Now, due to some unscientific production methods in many industries such as paper industry, textile industry and metal smelting, unnecessary waste of water resources and water pollution have been caused.
The government should formulate and improve water standards to regulate the water behavior of various industries and severely punish some companies that abuse water resources or cause severe water pollution. For various industries, they should adjust the product structure and improve production processes to establish water-saving enterprises.
Protection and restoration of water-related ecosystems
Those water-related ecosystems including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes provide people with recyclable water resources, but they are being destroyed due to human activities nowadays. We should take the necessary measures to protect them, protect our future.
We should realize that this goal–CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION is not for specific person or specific country but for all human and for the whole earth, so in order to achieve the goal, we need the efforts of each of us. Let’s start with some small things like Turning off the faucet in time and build a better future.
References
[1] https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/
[2]https://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/reasons-protect-conserve-water-resources
Zhao Yunxiang 
Compared with your first blog, this blog includes more contents and details. I like this blog better. You explained why clean water matters to us, which provide information about present situation, influences human can make and what the terrible result would be if no proper measures are taken. Your blog displays the data from UN website, including some charts, which help better support your analysis. You also list some measures that can be taken to solve the problem, they are very applicable. I believe human can and will achieve that goal if we make efforts together.
赞赞
After reading your article, I understand that there are many places in the world lack of water resources, and many places are facing water pollution, as well as some poor sanitation conditions, which bring harm to local people, especially in Africa and South America. I think these problems need to be solved from two aspects: on the one hand, to increase people’s awareness of water resources protection; on the other hand, to make better use of water resources through science and technology, as described in the cartoon in your article.
赞赞
I feel very sad to see the children in these pictures using such dirty water. We live in a country rich in resources, so we may not be able to imagine and endure such a life. As you said, water is the foundation on which human beings live and develop, but there are so many people in the world who can’t get this basic guarantee. I think it’s time to act. Thank you for your suggestions to improve the situation. Through your article, I have also raised my awareness of protecting water resources.
赞赞
Thanks for your comment. As you say, a lot of people in the world can not even get access to enough clear water and basic sanitation services everyday which we can’t image, it’s really sad. But I think if more and more people recognize the importance of protecting water resources, the world would become better and better in the future.
赞赞
Your article is very impressive! Water is an indispensable element for human life. However, it is also a huge challenge facing the whole world. Whether it is the drought and water shortage in some areas brought by climate, or the unsanitary water resources caused by chemical pollution, people’s lives and health are endangered all the time. In addition to the efforts you mentioned in the article, I think what we can do is to save water and reduce water pollution. I hope that more and more people can drink clean water and our home will become better and better～
赞赞
This is a good article as it is well structured and has rich contents in each part. I can feel that you have really considered about this goal seriously, and this article is really alerting people.
赞赞
Thank you for your appreciation! As you mention, I do think it’s the time that people should realize the importance of this issue and take some actions on it.
赞赞
I like your post for it not only introduces the current situations about water resources, but also involves some possible soluotions to address these issues. I highly agree with the four measures you proposed to achieve the SDG 6, especially the third one: “Improve water efficiency across industries”. Nowadays, there are many companies attempt to develop water recycling systems thus to use the graywater (e.g. wastewater generated by showers, baths or washing machines) for gardening, toilet flushing and other household or official use. And I do believe that by reusing the graywater, we can dramatically curb the increase in the growing demand in fresh water and conserve the remaining supply by a large margin.
赞赞