This archive report was first published on 21 August 2019.
On August 20, 2019, a World Bank report highlighted the devastating impact of water pollution on the health, economies, education, and agriculture of countries worldwide.
The report, which analyzed the world's water quality using satellite data and artificial intelligence, found that water pollution threatens nearly all the globally agreed development goals to end environmental destruction, poverty, and suffering by 2030.
According to Richard Damania, a World Bank economist and one of the study's authors, the report was a 'huge wake-up call' about the quality of water worldwide.
Water pollution affects countries both rich and poor, with the cocktails of chemicals changing, said Damania. Plastics and pharmaceutical contaminants are problems everywhere.
The ripple effects of consuming pollutants include childhood stunting, infant mortality, lowered economic activity, and food production.
Water rights groups, including Water Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), are calling for action to address the issue. 'Clean water brings dignity,' said Neil Jeffery, the CEO of WSUP. 'Entire communities are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, with a lack of basic water and sanitation impacting health, school attendance, and livelihoods.'
The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to provide clean water and sanitation for all by 2030. However, the U.N. World Water Development Report found that about three out of 10 people - 2.1 billion - did not have access to safely managed drinking water at home in 2015.
Experts believe that informed consumers can make decisions to keep rubbish out of waterways and pressure corporations and governments to take the challenge seriously.
While there is no silver bullet to solve the problem, economists remain optimistic that social movements, political will, and new technologies could still save the threatened resource.
