Critical global issues: Assignment

Running head: GLOBAL ISSUE
Addressing Global Issue of Water and Food Contamination
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

GLOBAL ISSUE
Addressing Global Issue of Water and Food Contamination
Contamination of food and water is a global issue that requires immediate attention
and intervention. According to World Health Organization (2019), over 2 billion people are
currently drinking water contaminated with faeces, causing 485,000 diarrhoeal death every
year and over 600 million people every day fall ill after intaking contaminated food, of which
420,000 people die every year. The serious risk posed by the use of contaminated water
includes polio, typhoid, dysentery, cholera and diarrhea and few consequences of intaking
contaminated food include diarrhoeal disease along with malnutrition (Sankhla et al., 2016).
This global issue is to be considered as a common good and every policymaker, government,
and other stakeholders should take efficient steps to address the problem.
The following sections of the paper will address the issue in context to the shared
responsibility of the common good not being realized and potential interventions to address
the issue.
Shared Responsibility
The global issue of the use of contaminated food and water by the people requires
attention from global stakeholders. It is the shared responsibility of the global community and
its members to safeguard their basic resources. However, this global issue is not receiving the
required political attention and putting a great threat to the people and their health. Even
though the issue has been persistent for a few decades now, the first International Food Safety
Conference was held in 2019, indicating how the global community does not realize the role
of shared responsibility in addressing the issue effectively (Godefroy et al., 2019). Ministers
from 130 countries attended the meeting and acknowledged the need for presenting key
actions to ensure access to safe food globally.
Remote regions of Australia are not effectively acknowledging the presence of deadly
heavy metals in their water sources and are drinking the same. Especially in the Aboriginal

GLOBAL ISSUE
communities in Northern Territory and Western Australia, contamination of water is a serious
issue, as a report from WA Auditor General reported the presence of nitrate in high amounts
above the safety levels in 2015 (Molino et al., 2019).
On a global scale, the majority of the countries present in the equatorial region of the
globe are facing an extremely high risk of water contamination. According to NRDC (2019),
the prime cause of water contamination is the dumping of untreated wastewater into water
bodies and states that by the year 2050, over one-third of the global population will be in
serious threat of not getting freshwater for drinking purpose. Moreover, the article also states
that every single nation in the world faces the problem of water contamination with
contaminants such as copper or arsenic, to some extent, and the only realization of the shared
responsibility could help the countries to address this issue.
Addressing the Issue
To address the issue of food and water contamination globally, the World Health
Organization puts greater emphasis on strengthened collaboration of the countries. On a
global scale, there is a dire need for each country to revise their investment and coordinate
more resources to reduce water and food contamination. To address the issue of food
contamination, changes in the food system is necessary, which would require the
implementation of novel food processing methods, technological advances, and globalization
of food production to connect the food systems and reduce the gap in the regulatory
responsibility.
Country-wise, multi-sectoral approaches including improvement of laboratory
capacities, regulatory legislation, disease surveillance and food & water monitoring
programmes are required. Every nation in the world can implement such an action plan with
the help of proper education and training of stakeholders, implementation of information
technologies and making use of shared information. In addition to this, every nation should

GLOBAL ISSUE
take help from the World Health organisation to detect, prevent, and manage food and water
contamination associated risks. The World Health Organisation provides help in several ways
to the member states, which includes the provision of independent scientific assessments on
chemical and microbiological hazards, and assessing the new technologies such as
nanotechnology and genetic modification for food production (World Health Organization,
2018). The countries should work in compliance with the INFOSAN (International Food
Safety Authorities) developed by the World Health Organization and manage food safety
risks.
Another global initiative to address the issue of water contamination is the Joint
Monitoring Program by the United Nations Children’s Fund and World Health Organisation.
This initiative aims at creating international estimates to be compared on the progress of
WASH (drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). The initiative has Sustainable
Development Goal of achieving access to affordable and safe drinking water by 2030 for all
and ensuring a larger proportion of the global population uses safe drinking water (Chatterley
et al., 2018).
For local addressing of the issue, the policymakers in the nation and specific regions
have a crucial role to play in addressing the global issue of water and food contamination.
Effective actions such as fostering multi-sectoral collaboration for better communication
among public health, agriculture & animal health and building and maintaining of food
infrastructure and systems that monitor food safety risks and provide emergency
interventions, should be the primary aim of policymakers to improve food safety. At the very
base level, people have to be aware of the healthy standards of water and food. The schools
and other institutions can conduct programs to raise awareness regarding the growing concern
of water and food contamination and ensure that people refrain from using contaminated food
or water (Mihaylova et al., 2018).

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Conclusion
Food and water contamination is a rising concern globally, and every nation in the
world is affected to some extent of this global issue. The global communities require to
ensure a strengthened commitment and acknowledge shared responsibility for this issue. The
contamination of food and water has several negative consequences and high-level risks
associated with it and as every nation is affected by this problem, this global issue can be
placed under the umbrella of the common good.

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References
Chatterley, C., Slaymaker, T., Badloe, C., Nouvellon, A., Bain, R., & Johnston, R. (2018).
Review Paper Institutional WASH in the SDGs: data gaps and opportunities for
national monitoring.
Godefroy, S. B., Al Arfaj, R. A., Tabarani, A., & Mansour, H. (2019). Investments in Food
Safety Risk Assessment and Risk Analysis as a Requirement for Robust Food Control
Systems: Calling for Regional Centres of Expertise. Food and Drug Regulatory
Science Journal, 2(1), 1-1.
Mihaylova, B., Wendland, C., Jelić, A., Isacu, M., Vasilescu, M., & Dokovska, N. (2018).
Water and Sanitation Safety Planning in Rural Communities of Eastern
Europe. Zbornik Međunarodnog kongresa o procesnoj industriji–Procesing, 31(1),
241-247.
Molino, P. J., Bentham, R., Higgins, M. J., Hinds, J., & Whiley, H. (2019). Public Health
Risks Associated with Heavy Metal and Microbial Contamination of Drinking Water
in Australia. International journal of environmental research and public
health, 16(20), 3982.
NRDC. (2019). Water Pollution: Everything You Need to Know. [online] Available at:
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know [Accessed
25 Jan. 2020].
Sankhla, M. S., Kumari, M., Nandan, M., Kumar, R., & Agrawal, P. (2016). Heavy metals
contamination in water and their hazardous effect on human health-a review. Int. J.
Curr. Microbiol. App. Sci (2016), 5(10), 759-766.
Who.int. (2019). Drinking-water. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-
sheets/detail/drinking-water [Accessed 25 Jan. 2020].
World Health Organization. (2018). INFOSAN activity report 2016/2017.

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