Bad water kills one cr Indians annually: WHO

Of the total deaths that occurred in India in 2002, 7.5 per cent are attributable to poor water, sanitation and bad hygienic conditions. From these total deaths, diarrhoeal diseases contributed to the maximum of more than four lakhs deaths in one year, followed by consequences of malnutrition. Childhood being underweight causes about 35 per cent of all deaths of children under the age of five years worldwide. “The total number of deaths caused directly or indirectly by malnutrition induced by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and insufficient hygiene is therefore 8,60,000 deaths per year in children under five years of age,” says the report. In India, about two lakh deaths are attributed to malnutrition every year.

Malaria, which also erupts from such unhygienic conditions, causes half a million deaths annually. In India, 34,000 deaths occur every year due to the disease. “Its is a timely study being done by the experts as during this time of the year, maximum diseases rise from unsafe and unhygienic conditions. Such studies prove beneficial for a country like India, where hygiene and safe water conditions are not known to people living in villages,” said Dr N P Singh, professor of medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC).

The situation is worse in countries like Bangladesh, where the death burden due to such conditions is 11 per cent and Afganistan with 15.8 per cent of deaths occurring due to the bad surroundings. Many other countries are, however, far better. In fact, Countries like France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Portugal and the UK do not report even a single death due to unhygienic conditions.

The investigators detected a greater impact of intervention in drinking water quality. According to the WHO, investing in safe drinking water and sanitation can lead to health care savings of $7 billion a year for health agencies and $340 million for individuals.