The Importance Of Water

The Importance of Water All living things need water. The Earth is full of water. The problem is that people often live where there isnt enough of it, and they too often waste the water they do have. Humans and other creatures must drink water. But it has many other uses. People use water to bathe, to brush their teeth, to build structures such as houses and schools, and to make products from toothpaste and paper to clothing and bricks. People waste tons of water, and they dont even know it. People are wasteful. They leave the water on while brushing their teeth, take long showers, and use water to clean their driveways. That is really bad! There are many ways to save water instead of wasting it. People can turn off the faucet while brushing their teeth and take much shorter showers. They can use a broom instead of a hose to clean their driveways. You can also save water by having a full load of laundry instead of putting just a few items of clothing in the washing machine. You can save 40 gallons of water by doing that! People need to change their wasteful bad habits, and that is a hard thing to do. But saving water is very important. I have recently learned a lot about water conservation in school. But Ive also been exposed to the need to conserve by spending all of my life so far in two states where water is in short supply

The importance of water for health

Water is the most basic human need. At one level everyone knows of the effects of dehydration. The raging thirst. The horrible dry feeling of a hangover. At the same level everyone also knows the value of good hydration. The pleasure of a cool drink on a hot day. The satisfaction of taking a good swig of a refreshing liquid. So its obvious that a minimum intake of water is essential. Without it you diequickly. And its remarkable and utterly tragic in the 21st century that millions of people in the developing world still have no reliable access to this level of hydration. We must never take our own riches for granted. In the developed world weve begun to realise something less intuitive about water and health and its this good hydration has a stronger connection with good health than we ever imagined. We now have research that shows conclusively that an adequate intake of water works powerfully for good all round health and helps prevent serious illness. Hillary Forrester will be bringing us upto-date on this in a moment. But what is an adequate intake? Well it must be different for different people. An athlete in training should take more water than someone with a sedentary lifestyle. But (and this is a key point) adequate is generally quite a lot more than most people drink at the moment. Rachel Clements for the Department of Health is going to give us more detail later this morning.

And are we talking about water or any fluid? This is a bit of a red herring, because of course all fluid is of course water underneath. But the view of a growing number of professionals now is that the real health benefits depend on a good proportion of a persons intake being plain water. And this is the view that is the basis of todays conference and the water for health campaign that many of us are helping to promote. Fortunately here in the UK and in most of the developed world we can guarantee these health benefits to everyone and Id like to say a word about this now. Drinking water quality To put it at its simplest we have the highest quality drinking water its universally available and its universally available at minimal cost. Obviously this is something we should be able to take for granted. Its almost the definition of a developed country. And if our basic premise today is true and water is more important for health than most people imagine, then its value as a national asset is even greater than once thought. It doesnt happen easily. A lot of talented people have devoted their lives to getting us where we are today. I mean my colleagues in the water companies, our regulators, and people in government at EU and UK level. The industry has invested billions in research, in new water resources, in higher standards of treatment, and in upgrading distribution networks. This work was required by society, was carried out by water companies, and paid for by customers. And we now know that it has worked extremely well. In fact I think we can claim it as one of the quiet successes of the past decade. Thats a big claim but I make no apology. The evidence is in the annual reports of the independent Drinking Water Inspectorate. Year on year the Chief Inspector has reported increasing compliance with legal standards. Our drinking water is now virtually perfect. But our industry never relaxes and Ill come back to this in a moment. And Im delighted that the Chief Inspector herself is with us this afternoon and will be talking about how Jeni sees the next steps. So how can we get the very best value from this national asset? We can look at this in terms of action now and responses in the medium term. Practical action now There is a lot we can do and are already doing. We now know enough and the quality of our mains water should give us the confidence - to make greater efforts to raise the awareness of managers

and professionals everywhere that they can make a difference for the people in their organisation or those whose lives they influence at very low cost. In fact in the last couple of years weve made a great start. By we I mean both policy-makers and practitioners and things are getting better all the time. Take children in school first. Last week a colleague of mine at Water UK told me about the persistent message coming from her childrens school about how the kids needed to have water not sweet fizzy drinks - at lunchtime and asking for their help. We might say it was the schools responsibility, but the point was well made. I want to compliment fellow members of the Water for Health Alliance at this point for the work they have been doing to make the importance of access to water in school more and more a mainstream part of education policy. The Alliance has been particularly successful in taking the message to government. And it was fantastic to see not just one but two secretaries of state for Health and Education saying how important they thought it was for childrens health and academic progress to have access to water in school. Im also really pleased that the water industry has taken this up in a big way. Many companies are offering to help with coolers or other ways of improving accessibility. And its excellent that theyre linking this to creative promotions and customer awareness campaigns. Well hear from Wessex Water in a moment about how theyre presenting tap water. Another step were beginning to take is to get the importance of adequate hydration taken seriously in hospitals. It hardly seems credible but its now much better recognised that many hospital patients take longer to recover than they should and even develop worse symptoms in hospital because theyre dehydrated. Its encouraging that were getting the message through to policy makers in the NHS. The Estates people for example accept that accessibility is important and the Better Hospital Food Panel has proposed locating more cold water coolers in wards. Yet theres a long way to go. The NHS has lots of new food options for patients. Nutrition is at the heart of all of them, but unfortunately the provision of cool fresh drinking water isnt. Were also making real progress with elderly people. Many older people become dehydrated because they arent very mobile and seem to need little fluid. Well there is some excellent work going on to make everyone concerned more aware including older people themselves and those who look after them in care homes. Our colleague in the Water for Health Alliance, Alistair McCapra of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, will tell us more later. So its clear to me that we need to accelerate this work wherever we can. And we can do this safe in the knowledge that well be delivering proven value in every situation.

So far so good, but I need to sound note of caution. Weve made a good start, but theres still more to do. Im going to finish by setting out a medium term challenge and the huge potential for public health if we can meet the challenge. Medium term and the policy challenge Weve seen that the message works in schools and is getting through in hospitals and care homes. As I see it, there are two big challenges for the medium term: to spread the benefit throughout the population and to support change in wider public attitudes. If these challenges sound daunting, thats because they are. But we have a great opportunity now to get things moving. The way to do it is to make water for health openly part of the new health revolution. What I mean by this is the self-reliance revolution - the idea of people having the knowledge to enable them to make good choices. I believe this revolution is well underway. Its a genuinely exciting development and Water for Health must be part of it. What is driving the revolution? Its the things we all know about. People have more information, better education, and more sense of what their lives can be. There is more knowledge online and more access to it. Professionals share information willingly rather than dispense knowledge. And there has been a big change in government thinking. Were finally beginning to see a proper focus on prevention as well as cure. The success of NHS Direct is part of it. Whatever you think of it, the concept wasnt even entertained a decade ago. But perhaps even more important theres a determination to take up quality of life issues, like smoking, anti-social behaviour and of course diet. We shouldnt underestimate this. It would be easy to back away from tackling obesity, say, or smoking in public places. In these individualistic times its not only ultra-traditional types who object to living in a nanny state. But the fact remains - these things need doing and our water for health message fits in perfectly. So this all sounds very good, but heres the note of caution - it will be a challenge to get people to change their views of things and indeed there may be some people who dont think its the right thing to do. We do need to have this debate. There are a lot of obstacles in the way of everyone knowing why it makes sense to drink an adequate volume of water each day. Lets not kid ourselves. What were facing is almost certainly: low awareness, low interest and a resistance to change because frankly most people have got better things to think about.

Is this fair? Were only just beginning to research peoples attitudes. Its true that people are aware of hydration issues at the basic level I spoke of a moment ago, but they dont know much about the points were trying to make and as far as we can tell theyre not yet acting on them. To change this is going to take a lot of work from everyone involved - the water industry, health professionals and policy makers. We all need to think how: To promote the benefits of plain water as part of a healthy lifestyle To make the case for re-examining traditional attitudes; and To build confidence and overcome suspicion. The first point about plain old water - is a real one. Why drink something from the tap thats tasteless and boring and says nothing about your self-image? Why do that, when you can have something with a full flavour, in colourful packaging and, if youre really lucky, makes you feel pretty cool? What are the brand values of tap water? We know the answers, but its not obvious how you make the case more generally (or whether its worth trying). Second point. When I say re-examine traditional responses, I mean the resistance to drinking more than feels necessary, but in all probability is necessary on health grounds. I think quite a lot of people still feel this, for all kinds of reasons. And my third challenge is that some people still dont have confidence in tap water and may even be suspicious of it. Weve made some good progress and programmes like the BBCs Should I worry about water? a couple of weeks ago help. But its going to take time for everyone to feel they can trust their tap water, especially when its not in everyones interests to encourage them to. And here the water industry has a special responsibility. Our special part in the new health revolution is to continue the drinking water quality revolution. What we have to do is get even cleverer at dealing with the reasons people give for being reluctant to drink tap water. For example, we must get better at curing any unwelcome chlorine tastes. We need to deal with discoloured water wherever it exists its perfectly safe, but you cant blame people for finding it unattractive. And we also need to help customers look more carefully at the hygiene of their household taps and pipes. I know that our Chief Inspector Jeni Colbourne will be talking later about this and the idea of water safety plans and the new World Health Organization guidelines which will eventually make these plans the norm around the world. To summarise.

First, in the UK weve made a huge investment in tap water quality. It is already paying social dividends. It gives everyone a water supply of the highest quality at minimal cost. Second, plain water is actually a powerful health drink if people can only see it as such. Third, the challenge is this: that people should believe it and get the benefit weve been discussing. Last, I believe weve hardly begun to realise the value of a truly high quality public water supply. From now on, drinking water for health as well as refreshment should be part of the self-help revolution thats giving everyone the potential of a better life.