Study: Water-related deaths could outweigh AIDS epidemic

OAKLAND, CA — Water-related diseases could claim more than 76 million lives by 2020, more than the global AIDS pandemic, unless action is taken, according a study done by the Pacific Institute.

The report, Dirty Water: Estimated Deaths from Water-Related Diseases 2000-2020, concludes that even if the United Nations Millennium Goals to cut the proportion of people without clean drinking water by half are achieved, 34 million to 76 million people could perish over the next 20 years, said the Pacific Institute.

"Under the most optimistic scenario examined, the death toll from water-related disease is still staggering," said Peter H. Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. "This largely hidden tragedy ranks as one of the greatest development failures of the 20th century."

The Pacific Institute's report said current development efforts, focusing on large, centralized water systems, are part of the problem.

"Far too much money has been spent on centralized, large-scale water," said Gleick. Changing direction toward a "soft path" relying on smaller-scale systems designed, built, and operated by local groups could help, the Pacific Institute reported.

The best estimates of water-related deaths fall between 2 million and 5 million deaths per year; the majority are small children struck by virulent but preventable diarrhoeal diseases, the study said.