A Different Kind of Water Torture
July 18, 2008
By The Huffington Post, July 21, 2008
Each day in developing countries more children die unnecessarily from water-related diseases than there are people in my hometown on Long Island, NY. Around 4,000 children per day or 1.5 million per year die from an age-old form of water torture known as diarrhea. Sometimes I imagine this: the entire population of my high school, the grocery store, the fire department, the library, the bank, and my family all gone. Dead from an illness developed countries have been treating -- or more often preventing -- for the past 100 years by piping water and taking human waste away. The impact of this gross failure to take action extends far beyond the lives lost. Girls and boys are kept out of school, economies fail to grow, and entire countries are unsuccessful at achieving peace and security. A recent World Health Organization report, "Safer Water, Better Health" estimates that providing safe water, adequate sanitation and hygiene could save health-care agencies $7 billion a year on health-care costs. Meanwhile 320 million productive working days could be gained and children could go to school an extra 272 million days per year.
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