Water is lifeblood of the ecosphere. It is a precious resource for the economic development and also for the maintenance of our environment, health and sanitation. The quality of life directly depends on water quality and our lives depend on how we protect the quality of our water. Clean water in an essential ingredient to economic growth and development and investing in water and sanitation has high economic and social returns. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a human right and a necessity for sustained livelihoods.

Only a tiny fraction of the planet’s abundant water is available to us as freshwater which has to serve all domestic, agricultural and industrial demands of the world. This limited quantity of freshwater is not evenly distributed. Some countries do not even have infrastructures to harness the available water resource for drinking purposes. Rapid growth of population, unplanned development, urbanization, land degradation, and lack of infrastructure for waste disposal are common reasons for the rapid deterioration of the water quality in the majority of rivers, streams and lakes. Developing countries undergoing rapid urbanization suffer from lack of sewage treatment facilities which results in the contamination of drinking water.

Nepal, though rich in water resources, still suffers from water related problems. Yet, a large proportion of population in Nepal has no access to safe drinking water. Major water quantity and quality issues in Nepal include the imbalance in supply and demand, growing pollution from domestic waste, industrial effluents and agrochemical contamination, insufficient and inadequate treatment facilities, weak policy implementation, lack of storage capacity, groundwater depletion and arsenic content. People still spend a major part of their daily routine to fetch a bucket of water in both rural and urban communities including the capital city of the country. Mainly women and children spend hours daily gathering water-often contaminated-from considerable distances for household and other needs. Waterborne epidemics are still common in the country causing huge loss of lives every year.

Poor countries generally lack access to public drinking system. As wealthier people can purchase purified water or individually develop a purifying system at the household level, pollution of water systems and lack of access to safe drinking water generally harm the poor, marginal and powerless people. Rural communities continue to use the most convenient sources of water irrespective of quality. Regular outbreaks of waterborne epidemics and increasing number of patient being admitted to hospitals due to water related diseases indicates that only supplying of drinking water is not sufficient to improve public health status unless concentrated effort is made both in water supply and sanitation.

Human and environmental health is at risk due to poor water quality. Studies have indicated that increasing water supply coverage alone will not improve public health. We need safe drinking. But, still water quality issues are underestimated. To do something about that, the Unoted Nations had chosen “Clean Water for a Healthy World” as the theme for World Water Day 2010 on March 22. The overall goal of the Water Day was to raise the profile of water quality at the political level so that water quality considerations are made alongside those of water quantity.

Water and sanitation must be given a higher priority. Pollution prevention and control measures can be incorporated to improve the quality of water resources. Overloading of water resource with waste can be lessened by the proper waste disposal approaches. Since the cleansing of groundwater pollution is almost impossible, significant efforts are necessary to control contamination of the groundwater. Appropriate land use practices and careful disposal of industrial, domestic, and agricultural wastes are essential for controlling water pollution. Significant progress has been made in treating sewage and industrial wastes in developed countries, which has resulted in measurable improvement in water quality. All should have responsibility to check the water to be polluted from the different hazardous constituents. Many of the diseases in Nepal, most of which are infectious, can be prevented by the development of service water, sewage systems and safe drinking water. Strong commitment is necessary from all levels to ensure water quality along with water supply.

Practical ideas, policies and strategies need to be formulated, developed, and adopted for maintaining the world’s precious water resources clean, secure and accessible. As preventing water contamination is typically cheaper than cleaning up water after contamination, efforts should be mainly focused on pollution prevention so as to ensure water quality. All sectors, public and private, must take appropriate and adequate action to prevent pollution. Actions to ensure the quality of limited water supply are needed at international level, national level as well as local level.

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