Water Quality, Consumption, and Community Health in Australia

This report, focusing on community health and water in Australia, examines the implications of water quality and consumption patterns. It highlights the importance of safe and high-quality water for cooking, drinking, and personal hygiene, as outlined in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. The report points out that indigenous communities have a higher water consumption rate than the projected standard, which can lead to water shortages and potential health risks. It discusses the need for effective water management strategies and addresses the challenges of water consumption in the context of population growth. The report also references several studies and publications to support its findings, including those related to water treatment, health indicators, and the adoption of decentralized water systems, emphasizing the importance of addressing water usage to prevent health issues and promoting sustainable practices.

COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WATER
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COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WATER
Findings from the Report
1. Water providers aim at providing potable, safe, and high quality water for the community as
per the requirement of the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
2. Indigenous communities have a water consumption of 1500/L/Person/ Day contrary to the
projected daily usage of 1000L/Person/Day
Implication of the Findings on the Community Health
A continuous supply of safe and quality water for cooking, drinking, and personal
hygiene is essential in the enhancement of community health. An inadequate supply of safe and
quality water whether as a result of high cost, poor access, or poor management is related to a
considerable health risks (Wei, Wei and Western 2017). These risks are experienced most by the
indigenous communities. However, based on the requirement of the Australian Drinking Water
Guidelines, water providers have managed to provide these communities with clean, potable, and
high quality water for consumption, which is essential for good hygiene and sanitation, and to
underpin nutrition, livelihoods, and fast economic growth (Sly, Moore, Gore, Brune, Jagals and
Sly 2016).
According to the research findings, indigenous communities have a high water
consumption of 1500/L/Person against the projected 1000L/Person/Day. High water
consumption can lead to shortages given the fact that, the remote communities have an increase
in population growth (Tapsuwan, Mankad, Greenhil and Tucker 2017). Water shortages are a
major obstacle to community health. In this case, the water shortages caused by high

consumptions can lead to increased deaths from diseases related to lack of quality and safe
drinking water, poor hygiene, and inadequate sanitation. Therefore, it is important for the
authorities to address on the issue of water usage to prevent these problems (Monis, Lau, Harris,
Cook and Drikas 2017).

Reference List
Monis, P., Lau, M., Harris, M., Cook, D. and Drikas, M., 2017. Risk-based management of
drinking water safety in Australia: Implementation of health based targets to determine water
treatment requirements and identification of pathogen surrogates for validation of conventional
filtration. Food and Waterborne Parasitology. 2(4) 45- 67
Sly, J.L., Moore, S.E., Gore, F., Brune, M.N., Neira, M., Jagals, P. and Sly, P.D., 2016.
Children's environmental health indicators in Australia. Annals of global health, 82(1), pp.156-
168.
Tapsuwan, S., Mankad, A., Greenhill, M. and Tucker, D., 2017. The influence of coping
appraisals on the adoption of decentralised water systems in Australia. Urban Water
Journal, 14(1), pp.45-52.
Wei, J., Wei, Y. and Western, A., 2017. Evolution of the societal value of water resources for
economic development versus environmental sustainability in Australia . Global Environmental
Change, 42, pp.82-92.