January 28, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Clean water and sanitation is not an easy sell.
So says John Sauer, communications director at Water Advocates, a Washington charity that seeks to promote the problems caused by the lack of good plumbing and potable water in poor areas of the world.
On The Huffington Post, Mr. Sauer writes to generate public interest in the 25 or so diseases triggered by unsafe water, they be lumped together under a more eye-grabbing title. He suggests “no-plumbing disease.”
“We would then see that no-plumbing disease kills more children than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB combined. We would see the truth of this ugly situation; the relentless outbreaks of diarrhea that, when they don’t kill kids, weaken them month after month — the instances of a single child, for example, suffering a dozen bouts of it per year, the ensuing malnutrition, the family’s economic burden of curing the child, the impact this constant sickness has on a child’s education,” he writes.
“The most practical investment we can make in global public health is plumbing,” he concludes.
Read The Chronicle’s article about the growing nonprofit efforts involving clean water and sanitation. (A paid subscription or free temporary pass is required to view the Chronicle articles.)
What do you think? What are other ways to raise concerns about the need for clean water? Click on the comment button below to share your ideas.
