“Grab the test kit for me, Ginny.”
My eyes scanned the river’s water, looking for any visible signs of distress. Something must be wrong with the murky water, since my mother had brought me here. But, the water reflected the sky and continued to flow – what could possibly be wrong? On this particular warm summer day years ago, my mother, an environmental scientist, took me out into the field with her. She was studying the effect that a local New Jersey animal farm had on the water quality of the stream that passed through it. Sure enough, the results suggested that the dissolved oxygen, phosphate, and algae levels at the site were impacted by the farm.
Human activity has put a strain on natural resources, and the scary part is that sometimes the problems, such as increased pathogenicity or toxicity in water, are not visible to the naked eye. For this assignment, we are asked to identify a public health problem that is of particular interest to us. For our final paper, I hope to explore the issues surrounding water resource management in El Salvador, a water-stressed nation infamous for its largely contaminated water supply. A combination of climate change, human activity, and lack of interventions has contributed to the problem and to the local health issues that arise as a result. A 2011 governmental study found that only two percent of the nation’s rivers contain water that is fit for human use, regardless of whether the use is for direct consumption, agricultural, or recreational activities. As an offshoot of this, I would also like to compare the efficacy of intervention strategies: small water resource enterprises versus large water corporations in their ability to provide access to clean drinking water for the nation’s vulnerable populations.
Contaminated water has a huge social and economic impact on a global scale, and is an issue that is growing due to stresses on the vital resource and population growth. Diarrhea as a result of polluted water is the number one killer of children worldwide, and productive work days lost from illness and health costs associated with inadequate access to clean water puts an incalculable amount of stress on economic structures. If we continue with business as usual, it has been estimated by the Pacific Institute of Research that 135 million will die by 2020 as a result of contaminated water. Keeping this in mind, a case study of El Salvador's water issues and an analysis of possible interventions could provide insight into the global problem. All that is left is to refine and continue to specify the problem definition so that I may begin researching the subject.
Ginny, this was a great post. I like how you incorporated your experience with your mom at the beginning. You are lucky that she is an expert in this field, and allows you to tag along for research. I am going to research the same topic, but instead of El Salvador I hope to investigate the water problem in Africa. I found similar statistics about the shortage of safe water in developing countries. It is such a broad and important problem since it affects almost every aspect of life- from the health to the social factors. I think your curiosity about the different affects of different interventions for this problem is very interesting- I didn't think about this before. I look forward to seeing what you find is more effective in this situation. I am also going to have to narrow and specify my search since water contamination can definitely be so broad. Good job!
ReplyDeleteKelley Hussey
Ginny,
ReplyDeleteGreat topic. You have a specific issue and specific place. Now, think about what it is about water sanitation in El Salvador that you would like to define as a problem. Is it lack of good sewage system? Is it increasing incidence of diarrhea in children? Is it increasing contamination by industries? Try to come up with a problem definition that captures person, place, and time with no causality statements within one complete sentence. Let me know if you have further questions.