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Water
and Children
In the
United States, we have good reason to expect that our children
will grow up healthy. A major reason why we can hope for a good
future for our little ones is that we need not second-guess the
quality of our water supply. Yet in many regions of the world,
water is a silent enemy.
Communities without safe water constantly face serious threats
to their children’s health:
Disease
Unsafe water makes children sick. The World Health Organization
estimates that 6,000 children die each day from water-related illnesses
that most parents in the U.S. have scarcely heard of. These include
cholera, dysentery, typhoid, guinea worm, and hepatitis. Any one
of these diseases can devastate a community’s young population.
One of the most common symptoms of disease is diarrhea. Many children
in the developing world live with constant diarrhea caused by water-related
illnesses. The young ones are plagued by fatigue and weakened immune
systems. It is almost impossible for children with diarrhea or
their parents to keep the watery feces from contaminating other
people. Disease spreads rapidly.
Heavy labor
In communities without easy access to water, children are the ones
designated to haul it long distances to their homes. Water weighs
8 pounds per gallon, so a child providing a family of four with
a sub-Saharan average of 16 gallons per day must carry daily 128
pounds ofwater. Children must transport this heavy burden from
water sources that are up to several miles away.
The heavy labor of carrying water often causes neck and back problems
that afflict children their entire lives. Sending children long
distances to retrieve water also puts them in danger of accidents
and sexual assault.
Lack of education
Children in communities lacking accessible clean water often miss
school. The demands of retrieving water for their families leave
little time or energy for studies. In addition, children are often
too sick from water-related diseases to go to school, or embarrassing
diarrhea keeps them home. |
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