Water Quality and Health in Egyptian Rural Areas

Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right. Improved drinking water for the human consumption should be free from pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, protozoan parasites and chemical pollutants to meet the biological, physical as well as chemical standards. However, inadequate sanitation and wastes treatment and disposal are responsible for water resources contamination. The large percentage of population in developing countries especially in villages not having access to safe drinking water and suffering from water-borne and/or related diseases especially diarrhoeal diseases. Egypt in the last decades has made significant progress in terms of direct access to safe drinking water at household level (92.4%) and basic sanitation services (92.9%). Unfortunately, there are many villages in rural Egypt that continue to rely on water delivery and waste disposal systems that are outdated, unhygienic, and therefore unsafe. As a result, the situation with regard to safe drinking water, household sanitation, and the environment within these communities is far from satisfactory. Hundreds of people had contacted typhoid during July-August 2009; the infections have been blamed on sewage contaminating water supplies. Childhood diarrhoea, are often caused by a multitude of factors. Numerous studies have revealed a strong connection between childhood diarrhoea and water quality and sanitation services. Extension programs to educate people on ways of protecting against the disease, improving water quality at the source and access to safe water, treating household water and storing it safely, improving access to adequate sanitation facilities and encouraging good hygiene practices, particularly hand washing are needed.