Drinking Water Crisis!

My first case study focuses on drinking water safety in Rwanda. The information for this case study was found at the following link: http://allafrica.com/stories/201602151380.html, which is a news source for Africa. In a developing country like Africa, 4/5 of illnesses are caused by water-borne pathogens. Currently, the goal is to develop purification techniques for drinking water. Historically, boiling water has been used to kill microbial activity however this is not always possible in Rwanda. Society for Family Health, a company that provides alternative water purification techniques in Rwanda, emphasizes the importance of training the users how to properly utilize the purification products. Hygienic storage and consumption methods must also be in place for drinking water purification to succeed. This article focuses on improving access to clean drinking water in Rwanda, where drinking water is often contaminated with bacteria and viruses that lead to death. As mentioned in the module, the electronic waste sites in Africa are leaching dangerous chemicals into the environment that will persist for decades. This likely will affect the safety of drinking water near electronic dumpsites in Africa.

My second case study focuses on the drinking water regulation in China. This information was found through china dialogue, a nonprofit organization that centers around environmental and sustainability issues in China.The link to the article I used is : https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/7722-China-s-drinking-water-safety-faces-scrutiny-in-2-15. The article analyzes the success of the 12th five-year plan that focused on increasing access to and improving the quality of drinking water. China invested 112 billion dollars into drinking water safety improvement and has focused on science and technological innovations to meet these goals. It appears that access to safe drinking water has increased and is spreading from urban areas to rural areas. However, rural areas are experiencing issues with arsenic, salt, and fluorine contamination from geological sources as well as persistent organic pollutants and hormones from industrial and societal activity and development. Industrial contamination of the environment that then leads to unsafe drinking water displays a downside to development. The industrial activity that resulted in contamination was likely profitable but does not out weigh the detrimental effects it has on the environment and population health.

When comparing and contrasting the two case studies to my place of residence, State College Pennsylvania, there are many similarities and differences to observe. The research lab I work in at Penn State investigates drinking water contamination and the development of analytical methods for drinking water extraction and testing. Drinking water contamination is a worldwide problem that can be viewed on a global and local scale. As shown in these case studies, access to safe drinking water effects Rwanda, China, and the United States of America. This issue does not discriminate between developing or developed countries. However, the contaminants causing the issues do differ between the developed and developing countries. Rwanda, a developing country, struggles with microbial contamination that causes diarrhea, which can lead to death. Where as, the United States of America and China, developed countries, are dealing with environmental contaminants from industrial byproducts like persistent organic pollutants which with long term exposure can lead to cancer and birth defects. It is very important that in the future, developing countries and developed countries learn from the mistakes made previously as pertaining to industrial contamination of the environment. As China and the United State are now learning, contamination events from 50 years ago still persist in the environment today.