Gaisie, S.K.Gyau-Boakye, P.G.2019-05-142019-05-142007Chapter 5,pp. 91-134http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/handle/123456789/29974Health services are utilized to reduce mortality and to prolong life. Clean water and sanitation also have a considerable effect on reducing mortality and morbidity. In fact, water is a necessary condition for human existence. Life is therefore sustained by continuous circulation of water. Improved health depends on increasing household water supplies. Population expansion tends to engender severe water sustainability problems such as rapidly increasing water scarcity (and/or food scarcity) and protection of water quality in order to avoid the menace of water-related diseases (e.g. diarrhoea, cholera, guinea worm etc.). It has been estimated that, in addition to rising demand, continued population growth implies that the actual ceiling of the affordable water use would decrease to half its present level when the population doubles its size and to a quarter when it quadruples its size (Falknermark, 1990). Population growth therefore consumes potentially available water in order to meet an increasing water demand. The influence on population of natural resource constraints is reflected, among other things, in water scarcity that generates high levels of morbidity among the population. Development involves, among other things, meeting rising water demand for improved health, quality of life, and food security. Population expansion, as noted earlier on, places severe constraints on the water availability to achieve these goals. Thus, as a result of water shortages , it is increasingly becoming an uphill task to provide for future improvements in the quality of life. Consequently, increasing water scarcity in response to unavoidable population growth and food and water needs that go with it forms the greatest challenge for humanity to address. There is therefore the need to raise awareness of increasing water shortage due to rapid population expansion so that realistic policy options to reduce the threat can be identified and urgently formulated and implemented . This is crucial for the ongoing poverty reduction programme because poverty reduction in a developing country is critical for sustainable development. This chapter attempts to assess the amount of water available for use in the Volta, South Western and Coastal river systems; estimate the percentage of the overall availability that can be made accessible for withdrawal; determine the relationship between present water demand levels and population size or relationship between population size and levels of water scarcity; estimate the future water demand in terms of projected population ; and infer the impact of water scarcity on health. Access to Sources of Drinking Water The results of the 2000 Population and Housing Census indicate that about 40% of the households in the country have access to pipe-borne water (14% within and 26% outside the households) and tankers provide water to 2% of the households. One third of the households obtain their drinking water from wells and boreholes while the remainder of the households (25%) depend on natural sources such as springs, rain water, rivers, streams, lakes and dugout wells. 92 POPULATION, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT Drinking water needs to be of a quality that denotes a tolerable level of risk. The quality of water that is consumed is widely known as an important transmission conduit for infectious diarrhoeal and other diseases. Thus, water produced for direct consumption and ingestion via food should be of a quality that does not pose a significant risk to human life. Figure 1 shows that a sizeable proportion of households in the country obtains drinking water from unprotected sources. Under normal circumstances, pipe-borne water is regarded as safe for human consumption. What one is not sure of is the extent to which the other sources are well protected. A significant proportion of the households consume water from rivers, streams, lakes, springs and dugout wells, a major health concern. The sources are indicative of a substantial risk to the health of the members of the households. Furthermore, where water supplies are intermittent as a rule rather than an exception, as in many parts of the suburbs in the capital cities and towns, the risk of contaminated water finding its way into the domestic water supplies will escalate. Even where water is supplied through multiple taps in the household, but the supply is intermittent as constantly being experienced in most parts of Accra, a further risk to health may result from mal-functioning of the water borne facilities. Figure 1 also shows that drinking water is obtained at different levels of service.enBook chapter