Global Research Related To Access To Clean Water

People around the world struggle to get a drop of clean water every day, which is something people living in first world countries cannot comprehend. Waking up without being able to shower daily, stay hydrated, and even brush one’s teeth sounds like a nightmare to people living in first world countries, but is a reality to many. Around the world, unsafe water kills two hundred children an hour and yet, despite the severity of this, no action is being taken.

Children in these water-deprived countries around the world don’t have easy access to clean water so they have to eventually drink contaminated water which kills them. Not only is waste left in water and then the water is untreated but, generally water is misused and wasted and there isn’t anything in place to stop the overuse of the water.

Countries like Brazil, Yemen, Pakistan, India and more are facing extreme conditions and are struggling yet their governments aren’t taking action to solve it.

Wastewater is left untreated by the governments and they aren’t trying to make it into usable water. The governments of these suffering countries need to do something about this because many people are dying. Higher officials of water-scarce countries need to look out for these dying people or these countries will no longer be able to function. The governments of these water-stressed countries aren’t being efficient enough in finding a solution and setting in place parameters for people so that water can be used properly.

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The governments aren’t using their power to create policies limiting the amount of water usage. According to Gupta in the CNN article, “State governments have control over water-related policies, and the lack of legislation for groundwater extraction and the inability to price water for every home due to political constraints has led to a paralysis in the formation of a sustainable framework.” Any policies that could be set in place to help the situation would have to be set by the government. Without the government using its’ power to create these policies and regulate groundwater extraction, there will always be a conflict trying to build a framework.

Due to political constraints, the price of water for homes has been varying and the government is struggling to price it correctly, meaning that homeowners are forced to limit their use of water instead of receiving an expensive bill. Along with that, Azmat Khan in a Frontline article stated, “The state needs to regulate groundwater withdrawals to maintain a sustainable rate of pumping, and it needs to introduce water conservation measures in agriculture and in urban areas” (Khan). Water is being used heavily in agriculture and in urban areas without any restriction. People are wasting water completely and there is no one to stop them, so they are making their crisis even worst as there are no regulations for the withdrawals of the groundwater. Policies are much needed to help solve this issue, as without them there are no restrictions on water consumption and usage meaning the government needs to intervene.

Many governments find the need to hide things from their citizens and not tell them the hazards they are faced when drinking the water that is available to them. In the theological review written by Wakes, she explains how Governor Rick should be held responsible as he chose saving money instead of the lives of many. She talks about how her community doesn’t trust their government anymore (Wakes). Government workers such as Rick Snyder are perfect examples of how these governments lack action in trying to solve the problem. They decided they it would take too much money to find a solution so they decided to brush over it causing thousands of lives to perish. The government could have easily stopped this and tried to solve the issue but, the choose to lie and hide the truth from the people.

Stated in the article by Wakes was also the fact that after her miscarriage she found a letter warning her about drinking the water yet it was too late. They should have been warned earlier as they had no idea the water could cause effects on pregnancy (Wakes). Instead of sending out a notice stating that the water isn’t safe for anyone specifically pregnant in time, they decided to wait when it was too late. They should have given everyone a warning to the fact that the water isn’t safe for people like Wake who had to suffer the loss of two of her children. A simple warning could have easily stopped all of this from happening as people would have been safe and stopped drinking the water, possibly saving countless lives doing that. The government feels as if it’s better to neglect the issue at hand and not tell the citizens about the real situation and rather just lie.

In certain countries like Pakistan and Brazil, the governments are aware of solutions but the proper action is being taken. According to a Frontline article by Khan, the government of Pakistan is being criticized for not changing anything in their drainage system after last years disastrous floods. Not being able to properly drain the water along with climate change is a major factor when talking about the reasoning for Pakistan being a water scarce state (Khan). The Pakistani government has been through these floods from last year yet they fail to try to learn from that and not try to stop it from occurring again. Pakistan having very poor drainage capabilities and them being very prone to floods is a very big factor in contributing to their water crisis yet their government isn’t stepping in.

“But much of this water is contained in the Amazon river and rainforests in the north. And without the proper infrastructure, the city is left unable even to harness the water sources right under its feet.” (Gerberg). There is an abundance of water in Brazil yet they can’t even use it, as there isn’t the right system to draw that water to their people. They are very aware of this yet nothing has yet to change. The government needs to start working on fixing their infrastructure so that they can be granted access to this water and not be a water scarce country. They understand the issue going on in their country yet they feel as if it’s not worth their time which is killing many.

The government is mistreating their citizens by letting them drink water that is undrinkable and letting them suffer from water cutoffs. There are heavy metals and bacteria in the water that haven’t been made aware to the people at all (Wakes). The water is said to have heavy metals and bacteria making the water poisonous which the citizens weren’t informed about. They decided that it wasn’t important to stop the citizens from drinking literal poison. The citizens are fed up with being mistreated and neglected and are trying to finally stand up for themselves and make a change in this crisis. “These oft-neglected neighborhoods, many of which sit at higher altitudes in the hills around the city, require more water pressure to reach their tanks. And even on days when it is raining outside, the pipes in the Periferia are often dry.” (Gerberg)

There hasn’t been a solution to trying to solve the problem when it comes to neighborhoods on higher altitudes. This is a major problem due to the fact that a lot of Brazil is uneven and elevated so the government has to try to solve this as barely any water reaches them up there. Neighborhoods are being mistreated by the government as they are just completely forgotten about and neglected completely that they have no access to water even on some rainy days. All of these people are being mistreated and are left to drink poison by the government.

The government’s failure to step in has affected the lower income people even worst and they are struggling more than ever. “Many São Paulo residents have had daily 12-hour water cutoffs over the last year. But Dallari points out that while wealthier residents have been able to build water tanks and purchase water from private sources, the poorest residents can’t do that.” (Gerberg). Purchasing water from private sources and building your own tank is something that shouldn’t even be into consideration if the government really is doing their job. Having 12-hour water cutoffs shouldn’t be the solution by the government because that isn’t doing much since people can just fill tanks like the rich are leaving the poor to do nothing but suffer.

“Just this week, authorities stepped up water-theft patrols at natural springs where fights broke out, according to local press reports. They’re being asked to crack down on ‘unscrupulous traders’ who have driven up the price of bottled water.” (Welch). The fact that there is such thing as water theft patrol is outrageous that these governments are doing everything but trying to solve the actual problem. Poorer residents can’t afford water to live so instead they result to stealing water and fighting over it because they need it as it’s an important essential to our life. All the lower income people are struggling to survive this negligence from the governments as they can’t afford to have amenities such as tanks or buy water.

Now although these governments have tried putting restrictions and finding solutions, none till this day have worked and they could easily fix that. “Some neighborhoods and surrounding towns have fared worse than others. The outlying city of Itu saw massive protests last year – sometimes turning violent – when the city tried to cut them off from the water network entirely.” (Gerberg). The city tried to just cut off a whole town as they didn’t have the capability to supply that area but, cutting water access to people is not the right thing to do as you are taking away a necessity of life. The government way not trying to deal with the problem so they decided just shutting the water off completely would be the solution. This proves how they just aren’t putting in a lot of effort trying to solve this and this causes poorer families to suffer even more. Trying to solve the issue by cutting off the water supply for many isn’t the proper steps to take in figuring out a permanent solution. The government’s overall negligence has been proven time and time again and although they have tried, their efforts have been completely insignificant.

All in all, these governments aren’t taking the necessary actions needed to help solve this epidemic that is taking lives by the thousands. It’s disappointing to see that something so vital to human survival is being taken away by these governments and people cannot do anything about it. Without these governments stepping in, more and more people will face death and yet, it isn’t seemed to be a priority.