Water and Public Health

WATER AND HUMAN HEALTH FACT SHEET

What Does Water Have to do With Human Health?

Water is a basic human need. We need water to survive, and can only live for a few days without it. When we get sick with flu-like symptoms, we usually blame the food we ate as being the cause of our illness. In urban areas of developed countries, many people would never think to consider that they may have become ill from the water that they drank. But many people in developing countries, and people living in rural areas of developed countries (including many First Nations communities) do not take safe drinking water for granted. They understand the relationship that exists between safe drinking water and good health, because they have experienced waterborne disease firsthand.