Water-related ills kill 3.4 M people, mostly kids, yearly
May 5, 2005 | 12:00am
Some 3.4 million people, mostly children, die from water-related diseases every year. About 2.4 billion people, over a third of the world’s population, lack access to adequate sanitation, and roughly 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water sources.
This was underscored last week by Dr. Pag-asa Gaspillo, director of De la Salle University’s Engineering Graduate Studies, citing a report of the World Health Organization (WHO), during a presentation of a research paper before the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST).
In the same forum, the NAST awarded her its Hugh Greenwood Environmental Science Award for her significant contributions to water and wastewater management.
Despite significant efforts to address the world’s water challenges, more citizens, organizations and corporations must participate in coming up with solutions to adequately address the crisis, Gaspillo said.
In the Philippines, access to clean and adequate water remains a problem in urban and coastal areas, said Gaspillo, immediate past president of the Water Environment Association of the Philippines (WEAP).
She has developed the process and technology that would preserve the quality of the country’s water resources and prevent its depletion for coming generations.
She has also designed and, using local materials, fabricated a water treatment facility for household use.
"Her contributions to water potability and purification of wastewater are really prime and essential to the life and health of the people," stated the NAST citation read during the awarding ceremonies.
Gaspillo received a plaque from the NAST and $1,000 solicited by NAST president Perla Santos from Dr. Hugh Greenwood, founder of the Children’s Research Fund.
The award, launched in 2001, is given annually in celebration of Earth Day.
"Why water? Every living creature on this planet is sustained by water. We must have safe drinking water or die. Yet, by the time you finish reading this sentence, a child under five years will have died needlessly from a water-related illness," Gaspillo said.
Quoting from the Philippine Environment Monitor 2003, she said just 36 percent of the country’s river systems are classified as sources of public water supply; 58 percent of the groundwater (20,200 MCM per year extraction potential) intended for drinking water supplies are contaminated with total caliform and would need treatment, and approximately 31 percent of illnesses during a five-year period (1996-2000) were caused by water-borne sources.
There are three main sources of water pollution: domestic (48 percent), agricultural (37 percent) and industrial (15 percent). They can be classified as either point source of pollution, which comes from a single identifiable source such as factory or discharge from a sewage treatment plant, or non-point source, which is attributable to diverse sources. Solid waste, which is disposed in open dumpsites or directly into water bodies, is a major non-point source of pollution.
The wastewater components of major concern, according to Gaspillo, are those which will deplete the oxygen resources of the stream or lake to which they are discharged, those which may stimulate undesirable growths of plants or organisms such as algae, or those which will have undesirable aesthetic effects or adverse health effects on downstream water uses.
The pollutants of concern are made up of both organic and inorganic materials. The biodegradable breakdown of these materials consumes oxygen.
The amount of oxygen required to stabilize the biodegradable organics is measured by the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) test. The higher the BOD, the more oxygen will be demanded from the water to break down the organics.
Untreated wastewater makes water unfit for drinking and affects health by spreading bacteria and viruses that cause diseases, including gastro-enteritis, diarrhea, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The incidence of water-related health outbreaks is going up. Improved sanitation and water pollution control, reflected by the willingness to pay and connection to sewerage system, is sorely lacking.
Less than eight percent of Metro Manila households have sewer connections, and the percentage is lower still in the rest of the country. Urban sanitation is one of the most serious challenges facing the government. Most urban residents have provided their own sanitation facilities.
But Gaspillo said there has been little control or regulation of these private facilities and many are badly designed and constructed. Poorly maintained septic tanks discharge inadequately treated sewage and effluents directly into water drains and waterways.
This was underscored last week by Dr. Pag-asa Gaspillo, director of De la Salle University’s Engineering Graduate Studies, citing a report of the World Health Organization (WHO), during a presentation of a research paper before the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST).
In the same forum, the NAST awarded her its Hugh Greenwood Environmental Science Award for her significant contributions to water and wastewater management.
Despite significant efforts to address the world’s water challenges, more citizens, organizations and corporations must participate in coming up with solutions to adequately address the crisis, Gaspillo said.
In the Philippines, access to clean and adequate water remains a problem in urban and coastal areas, said Gaspillo, immediate past president of the Water Environment Association of the Philippines (WEAP).
She has developed the process and technology that would preserve the quality of the country’s water resources and prevent its depletion for coming generations.
She has also designed and, using local materials, fabricated a water treatment facility for household use.
"Her contributions to water potability and purification of wastewater are really prime and essential to the life and health of the people," stated the NAST citation read during the awarding ceremonies.
Gaspillo received a plaque from the NAST and $1,000 solicited by NAST president Perla Santos from Dr. Hugh Greenwood, founder of the Children’s Research Fund.
The award, launched in 2001, is given annually in celebration of Earth Day.
"Why water? Every living creature on this planet is sustained by water. We must have safe drinking water or die. Yet, by the time you finish reading this sentence, a child under five years will have died needlessly from a water-related illness," Gaspillo said.
Quoting from the Philippine Environment Monitor 2003, she said just 36 percent of the country’s river systems are classified as sources of public water supply; 58 percent of the groundwater (20,200 MCM per year extraction potential) intended for drinking water supplies are contaminated with total caliform and would need treatment, and approximately 31 percent of illnesses during a five-year period (1996-2000) were caused by water-borne sources.
There are three main sources of water pollution: domestic (48 percent), agricultural (37 percent) and industrial (15 percent). They can be classified as either point source of pollution, which comes from a single identifiable source such as factory or discharge from a sewage treatment plant, or non-point source, which is attributable to diverse sources. Solid waste, which is disposed in open dumpsites or directly into water bodies, is a major non-point source of pollution.
The wastewater components of major concern, according to Gaspillo, are those which will deplete the oxygen resources of the stream or lake to which they are discharged, those which may stimulate undesirable growths of plants or organisms such as algae, or those which will have undesirable aesthetic effects or adverse health effects on downstream water uses.
The pollutants of concern are made up of both organic and inorganic materials. The biodegradable breakdown of these materials consumes oxygen.
The amount of oxygen required to stabilize the biodegradable organics is measured by the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) test. The higher the BOD, the more oxygen will be demanded from the water to break down the organics.
Untreated wastewater makes water unfit for drinking and affects health by spreading bacteria and viruses that cause diseases, including gastro-enteritis, diarrhea, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The incidence of water-related health outbreaks is going up. Improved sanitation and water pollution control, reflected by the willingness to pay and connection to sewerage system, is sorely lacking.
Less than eight percent of Metro Manila households have sewer connections, and the percentage is lower still in the rest of the country. Urban sanitation is one of the most serious challenges facing the government. Most urban residents have provided their own sanitation facilities.
But Gaspillo said there has been little control or regulation of these private facilities and many are badly designed and constructed. Poorly maintained septic tanks discharge inadequately treated sewage and effluents directly into water drains and waterways.
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