By Jennifer Cecil, Ford Fellow, Texas Christian University

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals target a variety of world issues including combating viruses, stopping hunger, and educating the youth of the world. But before any of the eight UN Millennium Goals can be evaluated, it is most important to combat the issue raised in goal seven, that of sustainability. The definition of sustainable is: living in a way that meets current personal needs while considering the needs of future generations, basically ensuring that resources and habitat are available in the future. Sustainability evaluates equality, ecology, and economy. At the heart of environmental sustainability is the crisis concerning safe drinking water.

In the United States regulations translated into acts, such as the Safe Drinking Water Act, ensure that the water our nation drinks is potable. It is treated with chlorine and fluoride to guarantee utmost quality. Two acts regulate water quality, one of which is the Clean Water Act, the other is the SDWA. The CWA created water quality standards for surface waters, required permits for discharging into waters of the United States, and requires prevention of storm water pollution. The Safe Drinking Water Act set primary and secondary drinking water standards.

Water in the United States is one of the cheapest commodities. Simply turn on the tap and water can be used to wash our cars, water our lawns, and flush our toilets. In developing countries, 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. Water is needed to survive. This being said, approximately 4,000 children die every day from water related diseases. It is necessary for contaminants in the water to be monitored. This monitoring is intensive because contaminants can be anything from natural sediment to bacterial pathogens to chemical toxicity.

In order to ensure environmental sustainability, it is imperative to share water sanitation technology to make the quality of life on earth equal on a global scale. The area with the most concentrated drinking water problem is Sub-Saharan Africa. This area also happens to be the area with the most underweight children, the most tuberculosis prevalence, and the most AIDS related deaths.

In conclusion, it becomes apparent that until quality of water is equal in all areas of the world, sustainability globally is not feasible. Technologies for sustainable development in the United States such as LEED certified building, or solar powered cars become, for lack of a better word, trivial. Energy put into development of these conveniences could be placed into providing a standard quality of life in developing nations, ultimately reducing disease and improving on at least six of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals; eradicating poverty and hunger, empowering women, reducing child mortality, combating diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing global partnerships.