According to United Nations Water, 783 million people around the world lack adequate clean water as of 2013. Unfortunately, it is predicted that, in many regions, clean water access is expected to decrease (UN Water, 2013). Underdeveloped regions such as Africa and Southern Asia suffer most severely from unsafe water due to their lack of finances and resources to develop infrastructure to provide clean water for their populations. People who live in these regions are forced to consume water from highly dangerous sources that harbor parasites, heavy metals, and infectious pathogens.
Each year, lack of clean drinking water accounts for nearly 1.4 million adolescent deaths, and unsanitary water born illnesses account for 3.6 million deaths (Starkey, 2012, p. 4). One way unclean water consumption causes death is by diarrhea from pathogen ingestion, which results in an additional 1.5 million deaths annually with children and includes illnesses such as cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery (WHO, 2008, p. 7). While malnutrition accounts for 860,000 childhood deaths per year, lack of sufficient food only accounts for half of these malnutrition deaths. Unclean water causes close to 430 thousand malnutrition deaths annually due to not only to illness from diarrhea but also to parasitic infections within intestines (WHO, 2008, p. 7). Diarrhea causing conditions and intestinal parasites deprive the victim of nutrition and causes he or she to become underweight and die of malnutrition.
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This problem has been worked on for many years by people all around the world and great solutions has been found through digging wells and building infrastructure. However, these solutions require money and resources not always available. According to Water Wells for Africa, the cost to build one well is $8000. Based on the great value and improvement on quality of life building a well, this $8000 is a great deal; however, there is still a lack of funding and not all regions even have the capability to provide water from a well, especially not clean water. Reliance Building Company estimates the cost of a water treatment plant in Michigan, America to be $4,600,000. This is also unreasonable, especially since this cost will be higher in Africa where there isn’t the same ease of access to resources America has. Since lack of clean water causes lower quality of life and shorter life expectancy, lack of clean water hinders the development in third world countries. This further perpetuates the water issue by knocking back the country’s ability to grow economically ergo its ability to fund infrastructure for clean water.
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Our project has not been created for profit but for the well being of others; however, our “market” can be defined as the regions which need a solution for water purification and have access to the necessary components for our process. The hope for the solution is to provide a higher quality of life for those in developing regions, not only for individuals’ contentment and health but also for the region’s growth and ability to implement permanent water solution for all of its inhabitants. |