Water-Borne Diseases

Water-borne diseases are "dirty-water" diseases—those caused by water that has been contaminated by human, animal, or chemical wastes। Worldwide, the lack of sanitary waste disposal and of clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing is to blame for over 12 million deaths a year
Water-borne diseases include cholera, typhoid, shigella, polio, meningitis, and hepatitis A and E. Human beings and animals can act as hosts to the bacterial, viral, or protozoal organisms that cause these diseases. Millions of people have little access to sanitary waste disposal or to clean water for personal hygiene. An estimated 3 billion people lack a sanitary toilet, for example. Over 1.2 billion people are at risk because they lack access to safe freshwaterWhere proper sanitation facilities are lacking, water-borne diseases can spread rapidly. Untreated excreta carrying disease organisms wash or leach into freshwater sources, contaminating drinking water and food. The extent to which disease organisms occur in specific freshwater sources depends on the amount of human and animal excreta that they contain