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Domestic water supplies are one of the fundamental requirements for human life. Without water, life cannot be sustained beyond a few days and the lack of access to adequate water supplies leads to the spread of disease. Children bear the greatest health burden associated with poor water and sanitation. Diarrhoeal diseases attributed to poor water supply, sanitation and hygiene account for 1.73 million deaths each year and contribute over 54 million Disability Adjusted Life Years, a total equivalent to 3.7% of the global burden of disease (WHO, 2002).

This places diarrhoeal disease due to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene as the 6th highest burden of disease on a global scale, a health burden that is largely preventable (WHO, 2002). Other diseases are related to poor water, sanitation and hygiene such as trachoma, schistosomiasis, ascariasis, trichuriasis, hookworm disease, malaria and Japanese encephalitis and contribute to an additional burden of disease.

As of 2000 it was estimated that one-sixth of humanity (1.1 billion people) lacked access to any form of improved water supply within 1 kilometre of their home (WHO and UNICEF, 2000). Lack of access to safe and adequate water supplies contributes to ongoing poverty both through the economic costs of poor health and in the high proportion of household expenditure on water supplies in many poor communities, arising from the need to purchase water and/or time and energy expended in collection. Access to water services forms a key component in the UNDP Human Poverty Index for developing countries (UNDP, 1999).

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Ebook Domestic Water Quantity, Service Level and Health