Collaboration

Hunter R. Patton
Health 410
Assignment #1

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Poverty is an aspect of life many Americans will never encounter and never truly understand because most U.S. citizens measure poverty in a monetary sense.   This is a valuable way to measure a person’s wealth, but it is still only one aspect of poverty.   People around the world experience poverty in a variety of ways other than economically. Towns, cities, and countries, around the world deal with poverty on social levels, spiritual levels, health levels, and even in natural resources.   One of the biggest ways poverty affects the world is by depriving individuals of one of life’s most necessary natural resources, water.   Water is necessary for everyday household activities, hygiene, health, and hydration. Poverty inhibits individuals from purchasing or obtaining sanitary water, limits countries and governments from providing public water supplies, and the effects are devastating.
Kathryn Jacobsen’s book, Introduction to Global Heath (p. 215) discusses, five important features regarding water access including proximity, quality, reliability, cost, and quantity.   It is rare for people in underdeveloped areas of the world to encounter a region that is able to provide all five of the key features that promote easy, reliable access to consumable water.   In poverty stricken areas such as the Sub Saharan Africa and Asia, governments are not in a position to provide public water systems, and even if they were the individuals who inhabit these nations are unable to afford the cost of water.   Many individuals must travel far distances to obtain water, and there is no guarantee that water will be present.   If the presence of water is discovered, quality then becomes a concern.   There is always the possibility that it has come from a surface water source or a dug well. Water acquired from such sources is unreliable and frequently found to be unsuitable for human consumption. Individuals are then limited to quantities...