Public Health Importance of Safe Drinking-Water

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 was made to address water pollution. In 1972, several amendments were made and the law became more commonly known as the Clean Water Act. The amendments include setting basic regulations for discharging pollutants into the water of the US, giving the EPA the authority to apply pollution control programs, and retaining present requirements for water quality standards. It also become illegal for any individual to release any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was given. Under the law's construction grants program, sewage treatment plants could be constructed. It also sees the need to develop solutions to address nonpoint source pollution problems. The act and its amendments were made to assure that equal access to safe and clean drinking water is felt by everyone. It was mentioned in one video that while we cannot run out of water, it is possible that there will be a lack of groundwater for a long period of time. I think the act tries to address that by making sure as little water is contaminated as possible. The challenge now is to find alternatives and solutions before water and other important resources run dry.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 5, 2018 at 6:34 PM

    While this might be true and the act might be doing what it was supposed to do, I dont believe that everyone gets equal access to clean drinking water. How do we incorporate this idea with our social determinants of health? What about people who are economically disadvantaged. And what happens to places like Flint?

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  2. UnknownNovember 19, 2018 at 5:33 PM

    Everyone deserves the right to clean drinking water. Like I said in Emebet's post, I am glad this act was passed and feel that it should be a standard worldwide. I strongly believe that if this was a standard, there would be less people getting sick from water borne diseases.

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