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Title: Decade of clean water. [Declaration of 1980s as International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade]

Journal Article · · New Sci.; (United States)
OSTI ID:7042163

A 10-year United Nations program will attempt to improve drinking water quality for 1.8 billion people and sanitation facilities for 2.4 billion people who represent an increasing share of Third World populations that lacks these necessities. The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (IDWSSD) addresses issues of both moral and economic implications if it succeeds in developing a social framework in which population growth can be controlled. Obstacles to this massive undertaking include its high cost, a stubborn adherence to expensive sewerage systems, poor understanding of how a community organizes to maintain and operate water-supply and sanitation systems, difficulty in linking the two programs, and the lack of institutions and skilled labor to carry out the program. A strategy adaptable to urban areas can use existing institutions to develop the system on a paid basis, while a free or easy-access concept should be adopted for rural areas. (DCK)

OSTI ID:
7042163
Journal Information:
New Sci.; (United States), Vol. 88
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English