Safe Water Inequality

Contrary to previous findings that show women are more affected by the lack of safe water and safe sanitation, recent findings show that in fact, women a more likely than men to have access to safe drinking water and better sanitation facilities (2016:685) which shuts down the idea of any gender inequality. However, Environmental injustice within the country of Ghana is very much an issue. The findings showed that overall, poor people, uneducated people, and people living in rural areas were less likely to have access to safe drinking water and safe sanitation facilities and had to travel a long distance to get somewhat quality water. As if traveling a long distance was not bad enough, the poor had to travel a great distance to get water that

I can also relate this study to the reading called “Turning Public Issues into Private Troubles” (Bryson, McPhillips, and Robinson 2016) because the consequences of inequality were suffered by children in both cases. In the study I focused on, children under the age of five were the ones dying the most from water related illnesses (2016:676). In Bryson et al. (2016) article, they found that because the children were in close proximity of the smelters , they were the ones affected the most and often ended up with high blood lead levels (2016:131). Government in both of these cases, failed the people. For years, Ghana’s government let their people down by making promises of change that they could not keep. In Bryson et al. (2016) Individualization of responsibility played a role because the government was putting the pressure on the parents to change their way of living and how they did things so that their children had less of a chance of being exposed to

Planet Water Foundation is a non profit organization that installs community based water filtration systems in one day that can produce up to 10,000 litres per day, as well as educate the people on adequate hygiene in their home and at school. They train the community on how to use these water systems and as well as assess them after installation to make sure they are functioning correctly. They focus on the children in the rural areas of Asia and Latin America (Planet Water Foundation). Their tower holds nine faucets around it and the filtration system eliminates bacteria and other contaminants from the water resulting in clean water for the children. The tower does not only hold faucets for drinking the water but also holds hand washing stations where people can come and wash their hands after using the using the latrines and before eating (Planet Water Foundation). Splash Foundation is a social justice organization that is committed to the poor. They too, install water filtration systems that eliminate 99.999% of the bacteria found in the water as well as hygiene training for teachers and children on a one-on-one basis and through school hygiene clubs. They also provide soap bars to the children to encourage hand washing on a daily basis. Splash also helps improve sanitation by making sure that the schools have