Essay Example: Drinking Water More at Risk in Poorer Communities

In Indonesia, diarrhea and water-borne diseases are among the killer disease of its population. Moreover, the segment which is more affected is the section framed by poorer communities who don't have access to safe drinking water. According to (Ministry of Health, 2007) on improvement on sanitation, it stated that an average of 750million people suffers due to lack of clean drinking water hence rely on surface unclean water for consumption and usage in their daily household activities. About 83% of the populations who are unable to access safe drinking water live in slums and undeveloped rural areas. Despite the fact that the drinking water for people living in urban centers is well developed to enhance coverage, the water distribution is at immense risk of contamination too.

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The majority of Indonesia, households relies on water for usage from springs, river, ponds, and lakes which have high contamination rates resulting in hygiene issues in general. About 11% of populations have access to a supply of piped water but the quality is enhanced. In most cases, people experience a shortage in supply of the drinking water in their households. Besides that, the water supplied is mostly contaminated by fecal coliform and me most cases its consumed when it's unsafe for use without treatment. Nevertheless, most poor household boil water for their consumption but it has not been effective since from the 55% water samples taken, there has been found contaminated facel coliform (Bakker, Kooy, & Shofiani, 2006).

The main concern about drinking more water among the population in poor settlements is that it causes diarrhea among them due to the high risk of contamination. After a review of previous reports, it was deduced that 88% of diarrhea mortality is amongst children in this poor community (Bakker, Kooy, & Shofiani, 2006). This is due to the lack of clean and treated water for drinking in households, poor cleaning of their environment due to the lack of a sufficient amount of water. Drinking this unsafe water contributes majorly to the waterborne diseases in the communities in this region which brings major health alarm due to the death toll of poor people in the country. Diarrhea subjects to 31% of adult mortality and 25% of child mortality among this poor person who can't access the supply of safe water in the country's population.

Furthermore, the supply of piped water to households amongst these poor communities is greatly connected as the main source of these diarrhea incidences. Despite the providence and supply of water to the poor communities, it only helps towards the minimization of the diarrhea outbreak risk but under certain conditions (LI, 2018).In these poor communities, most homesteads have poor toilet facilities which lower the environmental hygiene amongst them resulting to diahorrea. However, the supply for safe drinking water should go simultaneously with improved sanitation to reduce the risky occurrence of water-borne diseases.

Moreover, there are numerous mycobacterial diseases caused by water than waterborne which subject these poor communities at great risk. The usage of unsafe water amongst poor people within these communities is key purposes of the cause of these mycobacterial diseases. Microbiology research shows that these ailments caused by water affect the lymphatic organs which depict evidence of contamination by these mycobacteria (documentaries, 2016). This organism co-exists between animals and people hence there might be a transfer of diseases from animals to people through consumption of this untreated water from lakes, rivers, and quarries.

In this paper, qualitative and quantitative data used to examine the risk associated with drinking more water amongst the poor communities in Indonesia is generated from reports and journals (Ministry of Health, 2007). Moreover, to enhance the relevancy and correctness of the research, we explore the occurrence of the different interaction between the risky conditions at various distinct levels. This helps research helps different relevant agencies to understand the situations under which the drinking of bad water and sanitation circumstances are more or less problematic.

Methods of Data Collection

This research was confined to data from the Indonesian demographic and health survey (2007) to determine the results. These categorical data was selected to be and utilized to represent the poor community among the general national population. The Indonesian demographic and health survey consisted of 40,701 households residing in the 33 community levels in Indonesia. During the issuing of questionnaires to get the survey report the response rate was 98% of the poor communities living in various segmented provinces in Indonesia. To ensure ethics in and protection of human subjects, the data collected through Indonesian demographic health survey to be reviewed. According to research, the data collected consisted of children, men and women in these poor community levels who have been exposed to risks due to drinking water. There is also data on people who have been admitted due to diarrhea and other water-borne diseases caused by drinking this contaminated surface water (N=440). The was also missing responses in children who gave reasons why they were suffering from diarrhea.

Outcome variable

In this research paper, the main interest was the risks associated with drinking water by poor communities. In the data collection section, the outcome variable was represented by a questionnaire presented to people suffering from ailments in the hospital caused by drinking more unsafe water.

Independent Variable

In this study control variables were advocated at the household and community levels. These control variables were analyzed as the proportions of people or a mode of the poor people exposed to the same risk due to drinking this unsafe water. The main cause of risk in these households is unsafe drinking water (true, false), poorly maintained toilets (true, false). The main deliberative from this research was water treatment should be the best-chosen method to reduce the risk of exposure to diseases among these poor communities. The water treatment methods will include boiling the surface water, bleaching, chlorinating, and filtering. This will serve the purpose to disinfect the water before consumption and usage thus improving water quality for personal and domestic usage in households. The development of toilets will improve the sanitation level thereby separating the human waste from contaminating surface water used in households. The toilet development may be done in various ways such as digging pit latrines and septic tanks to store waste.

Context factors

At the community level, during our research, we confined several contextual variables. The first variable was how improved water coverage and environmental sanitation were to be analyzed by proportional percentage in households at the community level with an upgrade in water supply and toilet facility. In the data analysis, all contextual variables must be standardized to ensure the data variables correlate.

Data Analysis and Findings.

The research found that all variables are directly associated with risk exposure to water consumption among people living in this poor settlements. Despite that most variables lost its relevance in multilevel analysis, the finding advocated that the probability of children been infected by this waterborne diseases depend on the environment and household setting within a certain jurisdiction. Moreover, it also depends on the characteristic and sanitation of resources that they consume.

During our analysis, we found that the presence of piped water in urban are reduced waterborne diseases and other risks associated with water while in community level where the majority population is poor there are various water-related diseases. This depicts environmental injustice amongst the poor citizens in relation to humanity compared to the general population (INDONESIA, 2012). The areas with more water ill people were characterized with poor water supply, poor living conditions, and poverty. Nevertheless, the coverage and supply of water to the poor community levels did not completely reduce the risks associated with the water illness. This depicts that method of water transportation from a water point at the community level to the homestead exposes the water for domestic use to the risk of contamination. These findings not only made us conclude the necessity of good cover up of water for domestic and personal use but for the supply of safe water to the community level.

Some of the variables were incomparable during data analysis. Therefore, in regard to these variable most of coefficient that the role of safe water supply and improved sanitation level in reducing the risks associated with contaminated and unsafe water. This shows less infection rate to people in the urban cities compared to the high spread of illness to poor people living in different segments of community level.

However, this research had various limitations. The use of cross-section design hinders the relationship within the contextual variable. Secondly, the situations of illness related to water are generated through random reports which might be biased by problems of recall. Lastly, the qualitative and quantitive data on water treatment was generated manually and didn't capture the standard reporting methods.

Conclusion

Water-related diseases are among significance health crisis facing Indonesia. Safe water and proper sanitation are the important considerations to reduce the risk of a waterborne outbreak within a population. However, the approach to reduce this health crisis to minimal has not been identified. The prominently known factor towards reducing this risk which is rampant in poor people settlements is the supply of safe water and environmental hygiene. Besides that, scholars have got little focus on this research taking Indonesia as its case study. The prevention of these water-related diseases among poor people in population segments of Indonesia requires a strategized mechanism in water and sanitation improvisation in households and the various community levels at large. Among the major findings is that the treatment of water for domestic use in households does not minimize the occurrence of waterborne disease rather than the supply to each household.

References

Bakker, K., Kooy, M., & Shofiani, N. E. (2006). Human Development report. UNDP.

documentaries, d. (Director). (2016). The Largest Waterborne Disease Outbreak In History (1993) [Motion Picture].

INDONESIA, U. (2012). Water, sanitation & hygiene, 1-6.

LI, E. (Director). (2018). Water Sanitation in Kali Code (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) in 1 MIN [Motion Picture].

Ministry of Health, J. I. (2007). CHILDHOOD DISEASES. Demographic and Health Survey, 157-167.

The organization, W. H. (2013). Ending Preventable Child Deaths from Pneumonia and Diarrhoea by 2025. Geneva: UNICEF.