Water is a fundamental human need. Each person on earth requires at least 20 to 50 litres of clean, safe water a day for drinking, cooking, and simply keeping themselves clean. Water is a free gift of nature, it is more valuable than oil and more precious than gold. Yet, according to World Health Organization (WHO), more than 3.4 million people in the world die of water-related diseases every year as a result of little or no knowledge of the benefits of clean water, lack of access to clean and consumable water, etc.
In Nigeria for instance, most people do not think much about the cleanliness of the water they drink or use for bathing, or for food preparation. Rather, they consume water indiscriminately to quench their taste, wash their skin, and prepare their meals, paying little attention to its safety or cleanliness.
Unclean water isn’t just dirty, it is deadly! According to the Rehydration Project (Nov, 2016), about 2.2 million people die every year of diarrheal, of which majority are children from developing countries. Some others get seriously sickened by a host of water-related ailments which are easily preventable if deliberate efforts are made in ensuring that every water that is used or consumed is clean, safe, clear, odourless, colourless, tasteless, healthy, and fit for human consumption.
Access to safe, clean water opens up a world of possibilities for community development. The human body needs clean and safe water to function properly. Without water, the most basic element of life, all other human development efforts will hit a brick wall. Every human body weight is approximately 60 percent water and it uses water in all its cells, organs, and tissues to help regulate its temperature and maintain other bodily functions. Because our body loses water through breathing, sweating, and digestion, it’s important to rehydrate by drinking clean water, fluids and eating foods that contain water.
Unclean water can make one seriously sick or even lead to death. Drinking, bathing or cooking with unclean water can cause, vomiting or diarrhoea, skin rashes, and some kinds of cancer, like leukaemia, which can happen after drinking bad water for a long period of time. It has also been identified as the major cause of cholera.
According to girlshealth.gov, some kinds of reproductive problems like infertility, and development problems like learning disabilities can also be caused by drinking polluted water for a long period of time.
In order to ensure the cleanliness and safety of water, we have to first know the source of the water. The World Health Organization (WHO) also advised that we use, water filter, water purifier like Aqua Safe for purifying our water in defence against contamination.
Clean water is the foundation of all sustainable development as it influences our daily lives, it improves our state of mind, promotes weight loss, flushes out toxins, increases our energy level and relieves fatigue, boosts the immune system, relieves and prevents headaches, and also impacts the quality of life in a community for generations to come.
