CHAPTER 2: CIRCLE OF LIFE Access to clean drinking water


Safe drinking water is essential for people (Kumpel et al. 2018), and this aligns closely with SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation. People need to drink water daily for homeostasis (i.e. steady internal conditions) and to sustain the cells that make up the human body (Gleick 2009; Institute of Medicine 2005). To maintain the body’s water balance, a daily water intake of 3.7 litres by adult men and 2.7 litres by women is needed by the vast majority of people (Sawka et al. 2005).


In Asia and the Pacific, almost 554 million people, 12.5 per cent of all Asians, do not have access to safe drinking water. A major challenge for the region is the contamination of freshwater resources that leads to infections, parasitic and other diseases that disproportionately affect very young children (World Health Organisation 2016; Singh et al. 2001; Rahman et al. 1997). The burden of water-related disease is extremely high in the region – 30 per cent of the South and Southeast Asia populations are estimated to use drinking water contaminated by human faeces (Bain et al. 2014). Fortunately, since the 1990s, the clean water supply ratio in Asia and the Pacific has increased significantly, but the supply of drinking water in urban and rural areas in the same country often varies considerably (Figure 7; UNICEF 2017).


Water supports economic activities


Gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates of countries in Asia and the Pacific are increasing rapidly (Asia-Pacific Water Forum 2018). Here, the GDP at market prices refers to the expenditure on final goods and services minus imports (OECD 2018), and the


15


agricultural and manufacturing sectors account for most of it (Statista 2018). These sectors include the running of power plants, the production of paper and pulp, chemicals and the electrical and electronic industries, which in turn support employment. These sectors all have a common need for a regular supply of freshwater to manufacture products and grow crops.


So, exactly how much water is being used for production in each industry? This can be quantified using an index called the water footprint. It is an integrated representation of water used and consumed by individuals, businesses, regions, countries or throughout the workplace. This is based on the Water Footprint Network (http://waterfootprint.org/en/ water-footprint) guidelines and the international standardization of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (Figure 8).


In developing Asia, approximately one-third of the labour force depends on agriculture as the main source of their livelihoods, but in high income countries less than 5 per cent are employed by this sector (ADB 2016). To support the agriculture sector, irrigation is the dominant use of water, accounting for more than 90 per cent of total water withdrawals in many of the region’s countries, most notably in India and Pakistan (Galang 2016). A major crop grown in Asian countries, particularly in China and India, is rice as it is not only the staple food, but also the major economic crop (Venkatesh 2016). For example, rice production has helped alleviate poverty in Bangladesh through the provision of jobs and income for rural communities (Sayeed and Mohammad Yunus 2018).


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120