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Αnalysis of the risks and assessment of the consequences of not having access to drinking water

Tsontakis Tilemachos

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Summary

Water is a natural and valuable commodity necessary for the existence of life on the planet. An (average) person to stay alive would need to consume almost three liters of water a day, amounting to 50,000 litres, during their lifetime. It is found in nature and from a chemical point of view, it is not pure because on its way from the atmosphere, sea, soil and rocks it is enriched with various components, which give it various characteristics, so in order to be consumed it needs special treatment. Drinking water will be defined as water that is clean from: physical, chemical, biological and microbiological points of view and can be consumed without endangering human health.The possibility of direct use of excellent quality water is a good absolutely necessary for daily living and in many countries it is taken for granted. However, this possibility became a reality only in the last 30 years, while previously obtaining and storing water was a laborious and time-consuming daily occupation. The rapid growth of the Earth's population, mass consumption, abuse of natural resources and water pollution are the main factors why drinking water is not sufficient to meet the needs of the modern age and is constantly decreasing. Despite strong efforts, especially in recent years, 1,000,000,000 people still do not have access to safe drinking water and over 2,500,000,000 have inadequate access to sanitation. An important problem with water is that it is not easily accessible in some areas of the world, while in others the quality of the available water is very low. This results in the populations of these areas being prone to infectious diseases, such as cholera, hepatitis A, typhus, poliomyelitis, dysentery and diarrhea and moreover although small it is an important (compared to other causes) cause of death.In this paper, an attempt is made to study the problem of not having access to drinking water and especially the factors/reasons for not being able to access it and especially their correlation with the resulting number of deaths. More preciselly, in the 1st chapter the definition of drinking water is given and the conditions it must meet to be drinkable are described. In the 2nd chapter, each of the risk factors of not drinking quality drinking water (infectious diseases) are briefly described. Ensuring public health is inextricably linked to people's access to safe drinking water. Therefore, with the aim of ensuring the quality of drinking water, guidelines have been established by the World Health Organization. Issues related to these directives, as well as to (EU) 2020/2184 are the subject of the 3rd chapter. Chapter 4 is the most important part of the thesis, because it initially describes how important the problem of not having access to drinking water is in each of the 6 regions of the W.H.O. An extensive statistical analysis is then made of the number of deaths (percentages) due to unsafe water sources in relation to a number of variables/factors (GDP, life expectancy, education, average age, etc.). Moreover, a grouping of the countries of the earth is given based on these factors, Finally, in the 5th chapter, the results of the Statistical analysis are initially described, suggestions are given on how to deal with the problem and finally points of future research are described.

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