Public Health Hazards Due to Unsafe Drinking Water

A safe and easily accessible potable water supply is essential for good health. About a billion people in developing countries have not had a safe and sustainable water supply for several decades. Water is said to be safe to drink and usable for domestic purposes, when it is free from pathogenic agents, harmful chemical substances, and pleasant to taste. A drinking water quality may be acceptable when it is treated in a treatment plant. Using unsafe drinking or bathing water can impose serious risks to human health. Microbial contamination of groundwater due to sewage outfalls, and agricultural runoff can be a serious threat. Globally, the most commonly occurring diseases transmitted through drinking of unsafe water are infectious hepatitis, cholera, bacillary dysentery, typhoid, paratyphoid, salmonellosis, colibacillosis, giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis, and amoebiasis. Contaminated water may also cause many more bacterial, viral, and parasitic diseases. Majority of the diarrheal deaths occurred worldwide are mainly associated with unsafe water drinking, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. This condition indicated that water supply, and sanitation interventions can play an important role in combating the incidence of waterborne diseases among children. The prevention of waterborne diseases may include improving access to safe water, improving water quality at the source, treating household water and storing it safely, improving access to adequate sanitation facilities, and encouraging good hygiene practices, particularly proper hand washing with antiseptic solution. Water sources, such as household connection, public standpipe, and borehole condition, protected dug well, protected spring, and rainwater collection should be safe and accessible. Regular monitoring of drinking water for various infectious agents should be applied as it will certainly reduce the incidence of waterborne diseases