Sometimes it’s harder to get rid of the simplest story: Cristian, a 9-year-old boy, has been diagnosed with a overlooked tropical disease, an organization of 20 infections that tend to attack the world’s poorest communities where they have access to safe drinking water. and fundamental sanitation is dangerous.
Cristian’s specific ATN, which caused an eye infection, could be treated smoothly with a normal hand-and-face-washing routine, which is a luxury for a circle of family members living outdoors in the Honduran capital, where infected water is a gateway to the disease.
Because his circle of relatives did not have access to drinking water, Cristian suffered for two years because his eye infection became a tumor covering part of his face, was only 11 years old and died of headaches from a preventable and treatable disease.
If families had enough water to wash their hands and soap, a remarkable diversity of diseases (cholera, typhoid, sepsis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, Ebola and now COVID-19) would be more contained if it could not be completely prevented.
Not only can another 3 billion people not wash their hands successfully at home while COVID-19 travels the world, 2 billion do not have the protection and dignity of a fundamental toilet, 785 million still do not have blank drinking water, and in at least 2 billion other people use stool-infected drinking water resources.
The ubiquitous unavailability of water, sanitation and hygiene (called WASH) has a major global impact on fitness. Even fitness staff cannot wash their hands properly; 45% of fitness services in low-income settings lack critical water in gyms and sanitation doesn’t work much better.
These are some of the many reasons why we are launching the Bipartisan Caucus of the International Congress on Water and Sanitation. While blank water has gained strong help on Capitol Hill and 17 federal agencies are concerned about the control and coverage of foreign water resources and access to WASH, we want more powerful coordination and prioritization.
This is not just a global fitness issue, but also a global security issue. Terrorist teams use water to manipulate other people, from Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram to Daesh, which has introduced nearly 20 attacks on the infrastructure of Syrian and Iraqi water, and has gained damaging influence over local governments and others by cutting off water to Christian, Kurdish and Muslim minorities.
However, water can also bring stability. “Two countries participating in active water cooperation” will go to war for any reason, “according to an in-depth investigation of 146 countries bordering freshwater resources.
Access to WASH is also essential for a healthy U. S. economy; 80% of the world’s purchasing force is outside the United States. They are consumers of American agriculture, goods, and services.
Increased access to WASH adds more than $60 billion a year from the world economy (a $4. 30 retracement for both an invested dollar and both) and is helping foreign aid recipients return to trade. estimated economic losses of $260 billion consistent with the year in the next countries, or 1. 5% of GDP.
From a humanitarian point of view, the lack of WASH harms children, contributing to miscarriages and stillbirths, premature births and low birth weight.
Every year, 17 million have to give birth in fitness services without WASH. More than a billion children, like Cristian, are affected by NDDs.
Half of malnutrition is due to preventable diarrhoeal diseases caused by infected water, not lack of food, which typically lend nearly 300,000 lives under the age of five.
Simply washing your hands with soap can reduce episodes of diarrhea by 45%; on the contrary, young people with chronic diseases fall into school, girls give up when they don’t want sanitation, which creates them for child marriage and trafficking.
In addition to the 698 million school-age youth (37% of schools) without basic latrines, 818 million young people (44% of schools) do not have hand-washing services when they return to school because of this pandemic.
Consider this sobering fact: over the next decade, another 2. 9 billion people in 48 countries will face water shortages.
The U. S. government spends less than one hundredth of the federal budget on the global WASH. This important and successful investment has been overlooked for too long; It will have to be a cornerstone of America’s development, international relations, and defense. Our allies around the world will also have to mobilize. And that’s what our new caucus is in a position to do.
Prioritizing blank water, sanitation and hygiene will help advance the next drought before it is a famine, the next virus before a pandemic, and the next fight before a pandemic. ‘it’s not a conflict. This is how we are building economically resilient and economically resilient communities and families everywhere.
Representative Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat, represents the district of Oregon; Republican Darin LaHood represents Illinois’ 18th arrondissement and is the founders and co-chairs of the Congressional International Water and Sanitation Caucus.