Those that do not have fair access to safe drinking water, or that fail to practice good hygiene are because of that scenario, susceptible to all the diseases that contaminated water and poor hygiene can so bring, such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid, and polio. One might think in today’s modern world, that the places on this planet that thus lack safe drinking water, as well as those areas not commonly practicing good hygiene, would be few and far between, but alas this isn’t true, at all. We read at unicef.org, that “2.2 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water.” In consideration, then, that we know for a certainty the value of safe drinking water and therefore all the benefits that come along with such, it thereby indicates that the international effort made to date to provide as well as to sustain safe drinking water for all the people of this world, has not been treated at the level of urgency that it so necessitates and deserves; which is why so many people suffer the ill effects from that lack of safe drinking water and will continue to suffer until this has been successfully resolved.
While there are all sorts of hurdles that need to be addressed from a human rights perspective, in regards to democracy, opportunity, economic fairness, gross income disparity, justice, and the like; the bottom line is that at a minimum, no matter what governance a given nation so has, it needs to provide the basic necessities that the human body requires in order for that body to sustain itself and to therefore be in good health. This thus indicates, that more needs to be done in regards to the logistics and infrastructure so required to be provided to the people, of safe drinking water, along with a stronger emphasis upon the importance of good hygiene, in order to form the proper basis of good health.
So then, in consideration that all of the tools that are required in order to provide safe drinking water at a sustainable level for everyone, are already in existence; this thus indicates that a lot more needs to be done to make this a much higher priority so as to successfully resolve such for the world, at large. Great nations have proven that they can accomplish all sorts of seemingly impossible tasks, when the necessary resources, dedication, and persistence are joined together in a common cause for the greater good. Yet, we so find, that despite the knowledge that safe drinking water is a prerequisite for good health, we still have so many people that unfairly lack that necessary resource, as if the problem is intractable, when it is not.
There are, in the scheme of things, lots and lots of things that governments can spend their money upon, and of which, some of that money is wisely spent and some, for a certainty, is not. In the end, we should be fairly judged upon what we did or didn’t do, and any nation that has the audacity to believe in the fundamental truth that we are our brother’s keeper, but won’t even do what needs to be done so as to provide safe drinking water for all, has shown their true colors to their lasting shame.