PRESENTATION OUTLINE
The issue of privatization of countries water supplies has been raised before by a company known as Nestle. Their goal was to gather water from a well in Hope, unfortunately for Nestle the residents rely on that aquifer for their needs. The privatization of water is an issue because of the loss of control of the water from the communities that rely on it and because water resources are slowly dwindling because of the increasing population. Increasing population, however is not the only cause of shortage of fresh water.
Such other causes of water shortages are: global warming, pollution and climate change, which are all results of human actions. These actions include the use of industrial plants, vehicles and manufacturing plants.
Each year over roughly 1.6 million children died due to waterborne illnesses from lack of clean water. The lack of clean water also affects education in developing countries because of the lack of sanitation in schools or simply not having wash stations which forces some children to drop out of school. Every 90 seconds a child dies from a water related disease and also effects women and girls all around the world. On average women spend 6 hours each day collecting water. Having access to clean water could help reduce psychological stress, reduced physical injury from lifting and carrying heavy loads of water. If they could have taps closer to their villages it could reduce their chances of being attacked, less time spent travelling to get water and the water from the tap would have a better chance of being clean.
Some consequences related to the issue of not being able to access clean water include; disease and infection, dehydration, unhygienic individuals, disappearing wetlands, damaged ecosystems. and in some severe cases, death.
There are currently 663 million individuals who are living without access to safe water. Women are particularly affected by the issue of no access to clean water, since they are mainly the ones put in position to collect water. It has been proven that every day for 6 hours a day are spent by women and girls collecting a water supply. The issue also usually affects individuals who lack money and/or resources.
In 2012, about 20% of the world’s fresh water was told to be in Canada. It has also been proven that Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Dangers of fresh water scarcity include; disease and infection such as, cholera and typhoid fever, unsafe and unhealthy individuals, dehydration, unhealthy aquatic ecosystems, and in many cases, death.
Privatization of water can help improve the overall water supply. Companies would prefer clean water over dirty water, which means they would invest higher amounts of money to guarantee the safety of the water.
