Water supply and sanitation in Africa

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_South_Africa

Water supply and sanitation in Africa

The people who live in Africa have not had abundant availability of water. In the past few years the availability has gone up some for those who live in urban areas, but in the rural areas most still are with little access to clean water. It was hopeful that by now every house hold would have access to clean water but that has not been the case. Over 20 years access to clean water has only increased eight percent in the rural areas. In 2010 11 million people did not have access to clean or sanitized water. However the availability has been increasing, very slowly though, over the years.

Picture:
This picture shows improvement of water availability in Africa. Its holding hope for the people in rural areas that eventually they will get clean water.



Opinion:
In my opinion I believe that the water supply will start to increase now because of the awareness that it is a problem. I believe it will definitely take sometime to get where it needs to be but with all the help that other countries are providing eventually it will get there.

Questions:
1. Do you believe the availability of clean water will increase or decrease over the years?
2. What are somethings we can do to help increase availability if any?
3. What could be some possible causes of the availability of water not being at where it should be?

polluted drinking water

http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/water/water-toxins

Toxins In Our Drinking Water
By: Global Healing Center

Summary: There is alot of pollution and toxins in our drinking water and you may not know that your consuming these toxins which are extremely harmful to your body. The article states the importance of water and how our body needs it and runs on it, without it we could be in serious danger and the chemicals in it just make it worse. Like I said before you may not know that those toxins are there. "There are more than 80 "regulated" contaminants and more unregulated toxins, like the rocket fuel component perchlorate which are present in most tap water". That was said in the article and also you might feel safe drinking bottled water but you should still read all the fine print just to be safe that the water is safe. Toxins, chemicals and pollution in water can contain arsenic, fluoride and chlorine. Without water your body will not be able to function properly and within a few days it will lead to death.

Opinion/Reflection: I agree with this artical that its vital that you are drinking a good amount of water everyday. Also that the sides effects of not drinking enough water can seriously hurt your health. The toxins in it just make it worse like arsenic which is a cancer causing agent. Or flourine which is in totthpaste but more poisonous than lead. I can relate to the chemical chlorine becuase its aborbed through the skin or inhaled and im at a pool 4 hours every day and chlorine causes serious cell damage. I might see long term effects of breathing in and absorbing so much chlorine later on in life. I might have to start being more careful about what I drink and the bottles of whater i buy.

Questions:   1.) What are ways you could prevent yourself from consuming all these toxins?
                     2.) Do you think that the government should do more about pollution in our drinking
                          water?
                     3.) If the government did do something about it, do you think we should be taxed?
                     4.) Before you read this article or blog were you aware of all these dangers that are in
                          our drinking water?
                   
      

Ground Water Polution

 Pollution of Groundwater, by: William R. Mason 1995
http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Oc-Po/Pollution-of-Groundwater.html#b

Summary:
Almost half of the Untied States rely on groundwater for their everyday water needs. These areas in which we obtain our water are currently being polluted by us humans. A ground water pollutant is a substance that makes the water unclean. Many people believe that the soil and sediment act as a filter, and they think that if they pour chemicals or some other pollutant into the ground it wont be harmful. During the 1970's scientists found out that people were pouring chemicals into the ground and it was contaminating our ground water. It caused much damage and cost the water purification plants a lot of money to filter it from the aquifers. Some pollutants that people were pouring out were, fertilizers, pesticides, petroleum based fuels, and chlorinated solvents. There are current laws preventing people from depositing their waste into the ground. Some methods of clean up that are being used are, groundwater extraction wells, bioremediation, and treating the water at its point of use. They all serve the same purpose of removing the pollutants.

Opinion: 
I believe that its terrible that people are to lazy to safely remove there waste safely, but instead choose to dump it into the ground. Its selfish because those people are contaminating the water we use and drink. If you think about it people in third world countries don't have any water to drink and here in the U.S. people are ruining perfectly good water, just because their to lazy to remove it safely. In addition the chemicals are not just bad for the groundwater, but there bad for the soil and organisms which are near the pollutants. Its also harming our government. Their spending so much of our tax- payers money to remove the chemicals, that we have no money left for our specific needs. This can all be prevented by removing, and not using bad chemicals safely. 

Questions:

1. Do you think more should be done to prevent people form depositing these chemicals into the ground?

2. How do you think these pollutants are affecting the water in which we drink?

3. Do you believe there should be ban's on dangerous chemicals such as pesticides, and chlorinated solvents? 

4. Who should be responsible for cleaning our groundwater?

5. Who should pay for the removal of the pollutants in our groundwater?

Benjamin Kron, November 1st, 2012