​Written by Bethany Yaffe
Environmental Engineer
Well Water Global Board of Directors

Today is Giving Tuesday. Here is a reminder why giving clean water today will make a huge impact.

Over the last six weeks, we have published a series of articles that review access to drinking water and sanitation in different countries and we have shared about the spring protection box projects that Well Water Global has completed this year to help people in rural villages gain access to clean water. To recap, one-third of the global population needs access to clean drinking water, and one-half of the global population needs access to sanitation.

​The World Bank estimates that it will cost 6.7 trillion US dollars globally to meet the goal of all people having access to clean water and sanitation. We discussed why it is important to have access to clean water in terms of health impacts. However, access to clean water doesn’t just improve people’s health, but it also encourages economic growth. Researchers at the University of Oxford estimate that economic losses related to water insecurity and poor sanitation amount to 470 billion US dollars per year.

This seems like a huge task, and it is, but every clean-water project that is completed drastically changes people’s lives and the trajectory of entire communities. By giving people access to clean water sources and hygiene education, we have the potential to prevent 10% of all global diseases. Additionally, providing populations with access to clean water gives back to that community exponentially, as communities that have access to water experience economic growth that ranges from $5-$46 dollars for every $1 invested (developing countries with improved access to clean water and sanitation experienced an average of 3.7% growth, while similar countries without access to water and improved sanitation experienced an average growth of 0.1%). For every $1 dollar invested in basic drinking water, an average of $7 is returned in saved medical costs and increased productivity. Health, employment, and economic benefits arise from increased productivity due to less workers taking time off while sick (global benefit of 750 million US dollars) and using time otherwise spent fetching water and looking for an adequate location to relieve oneself to work (global benefit of 64 billion US dollars).

What can we do to help meet this need? Giving financially helps a lot (and remember, giving to Well Water Global is tax deductible), but there are also different ways you can give that don’t mean taking your wallet out:

• Organize a casual day at work and ask for a $5 donation to participate.
• Use smile.amazon.com and choose Well Water Global as your charity of choice when shopping online.
• Create a facebook fundraiser (templates are provided!).
• Get the word out on this important work: value water and share updates from your favorite water-oriented nonprofits on social media to spread awareness.
• See if your employer will match your own donations and every dollar you give will count as double.

The first step of a WWTP is called the “headworks.” In the headworks, solid objects are removed from the sewage. All sorts of items are removed here: everything from big pieces of wood to little pieces of corn.

After the headworks, we let nature work for us: sewage is sent to basins (sort of like huge bathtubs) where we pump air into the sewage. Bacteria live in these basins. The bacteria use the pumped air to breath, and they literally eat the gross stuff in the sewage. That’s right: you flush your toilet, and we feed the contents to bacteria. These bacteria consume what is in the sewage and convert it to less-harmful substances. In between eating sessions, the bacteria make lots of babies. As these bacteria babies begin to fill up our basins, we must remove a portion to make room for more incoming sewage. The bacteria we remove from the basins is attractively called “sludge.”

Sometimes the sludge, which contains valuable things like nitrogen and phosphorus, is used as fertilizer on farmland. Sometimes the sludge is put into a process called “digestion.” The digestion process is a lot like your stomach: more bacteria go to work “digesting” the contents of the sludge. And just like our stomachs, the bacteria create gas. Unlike our own farts, however, we build special structures to capture these bacteria farts because we can use the gas as a fuel source called “biogas.”

What is left is liquid, and that is sent to a disinfection process. Disinfection kills—or disables—any harmful pathogens and viruses still left in the sewage. If a human or animal were to come into contact with this treated sewage, we don’t want them getting sick, and that is why disinfection is so important! Typically, the disinfected wastewater is then released to a water body, such as a nearby river or stream.
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Now keep in mind, this is a general overview—some sewage requires further, more complex, processing. But you start to get the idea: it is a massive undertaking to properly dispose of the contents of your morning stool. Each part of this system, from the pipes that convey it to the pumps that pump it to the plants that treat it, requires constant attention and maintenance. And our system is not in good shape: the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) report card gives our wastewater treatment system in the US a resounding “D+.” At this point, the EPA estimates that we must spend upwards of $300 billion to meet current and future wastewater treatment demands in this country. Where will that money come from? That’s a good question! The honest answer is that we don’t really know. Some funding comes from the federal government, some from the local government. One federal program called the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) will provide approximately $1 billion dollars to local communities which will themselves invest approximately $2 billion. While this is a great start, it is still just a drop in the proverbial wastewater bucket. 

​Our hope is that illustrating exactly how involved and important clean water and wastewater systems are in your own life will increase appreciation and gratitude for the water that you use on a daily basis. What would we do without wastewater infrastructure and treatment? Alarmingly, still more than half of the world's population does not have access to safe sanitation facilities.