新托福阅读材料汇总：Water in Developing Countries

In the developing world, water quality remains the major concern (though water quantity is certainly a major problem in certain geographic areas). In this case, scarcity results when either the physical quantity of water is low or the quality of existing water resources is unfit for human use. Rapid urbanization has outpaced the capacities of many countries to meet basic human needs for both distribution and sanitation. Simply put, most water industries within developing nations are incapable of supplying adequate and clean water to all citizens.

In many parts of the world, the lack of an adequate supply of clean water for drinking and sanitation is a serious environ­mental and health issue. Waterborne diseases remain one of the most significant threats to human health worldwide. According to the United Nations World Health Organization's 2002 report, an estimated 1.7 million deaths a year can be attributed to unsafe water supplies. Most of these deaths are from diarrheal diseases; 90 percent of which are children in developing countries.

A major problem is simply inadequate infrastructure ? not enough pipes exist to satisfy demand. To compound this, many citizens in the developing world live in large shanty towns on the outskirts of cities and lack formal property rights to their homes. Governments often refuse to recognize these dwellers because doing so would mean they would have to fulfill an obligation to supply these citizens with services, including water. The vicious cycle continues as those without water are forced to make use of whatever is available, often times bathing, cleaning, and laundering in horribly polluted streams.