Water Quality and Its Impact on Health Care in the Arab World

Abstract

Water is vital to sustain all forms of life, but if contaminated, it can be a source of spreading various diseases; thus the water quality should be good to be safe for use as to protect public health. Contaminated water may contain disease-causing organisms such as bacteria, protozoa, viruses, and helminths as well as some toxic chemicals. Known pathogens for which water is a transmission route continue to increase as new or previously unrecognized pathogens continue to be discovered. Childhood diarrhea is still the second-leading cause of childhood mortality. This chapter presents water supply and sanitation issues and the health impacts of contaminated water with focus on drinking water quality aspects in the Arab countries. Adequate sanitation reduces or prevents human fecal pollution of the environment, thereby reducing or eliminating transmission of waterborne diseases from the source and compliments the efforts to safeguard public health and improve health care. The sources of water pollution and the methods of water and wastewater treatment are discussed with emphasis on current practices in the Arab region. Since most Arab countries suffer from water scarcity, water reuse has a great potential in significantly increasing available water resources and maintaining a clean environment, as long as health impacts of reuse of treated wastewater are taken into consideration. Finally, supply of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation is essential for improving health care in the Arab countries where most people live in rural areas.