LeakBird

(Jan. 14, 2009, Detroit Free Press)

It’s not very sexy. Yet it is one of the most important and potentially costly health-related issues facing our nation. I refer to the need to continue supplying safe, clean drinking water — billions of gallons a day. Threats to our water security are increasing and the infrastructure for delivery to our homes, schools, hospitals and places of work is crumbling.

Replacing thousands of miles of old, rusting and leaking pipelines — sometimes 100 years old — is essentially a local and state issue. But cumulatively, it is a serious national problem, requiring major investment, planning and construction on a national scale. Clean water is essential to our lives. Ensuring its future availability should be a priority for the new head of Department of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, and the heads of Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.

So far, we have been lucky. But a recent outbreak of e-coli in Colorado is a reminder that even in states with the most impeccable safety records, breakdowns are occurring with growing frequency. Vigilance is essential to prevent a recurrence of waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera that claimed so many thousands of lives in the past.

Do we have the expertise to prevent this? Yes. Do we have the technology? Yes. What we need is the political will — and yes, billions of dollars of investment to restore and expand our water infrastructure. It is hard to think of a more urgent use for future federal funds.

Looking back, this country has a great record. The fact that our whole population of more than 300 million can today take clean drinking water for granted is an achievement difficult to overestimate. It is a tribute to the many scientists, engineers and public health officials who made it happen and to the country’s far-sighted investment in the development of our vast water infrastructure.

It is also a tribute to those researchers, here and in Europe, who discovered that chlorine was a safe, reliable and affordable disinfectant that killed dangerous bacteria in the water and essentially eliminated waterborne diseases, literally saving the lives of thousands of infants and children who otherwise, each year, faced deaths before ever reaching age five.

This development has been described as probably the greatest advance in public health.

Few of us working in the field would argue. It is worth remembering that in the early 1900s, waterborne diseases were still rampant and claiming thousands of lives each year. Attempts to purify water often ended in failure. Raw sewage was often dumped directly into the rivers and lakes that were also a source of the region’s drinking water. Little surprise, therefore, that life expectancy hovered around the mid-40s.

The big breakthrough in eliminating waterborne diseases and almost doubling our life expectancy came just over 100 years ago. In 1908, Jersey City, New Jersey, became the first municipality in the country to chlorinate its water supply. The results were dramatic. Within a few years, death rates from waterborne diseases plunged by 90 % and life expectancy soared.

It is an anniversary that has passed almost unnoticed, but for those of us concerned with public health, it is an anniversary worth celebrating. But while our drinking water today is among the world’s safest, we cannot relax. Our aging wastewater and water distribution systems pose an increasing threat to public health. And we need to increase our investment in the research and development of water science and technology.

Safe drinking water is important not only for the health of our population, but for our economic prosperity and quality of life.

Sexy or not, the new administration cannot afford to ignore this largely unseen but very serious challenge to its governance.

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