Health risks of rural water supply due to lack of proper sanitation in southeast Asian countries.

A comparative study on the effects of lack of sanitation and inappropriate waste handling on water supply was carried out in several Southeast Asian countries that have problems such as inadequate water resources, water supply and sanitation. Though the degree and the cause varied in each country, all the countries investigated had problems arising from contamination of water resources. It was found that there are several sources of water contamination, such as human and animal excreta, solid wastes from nearby houses, graveyards, contaminated river flows, and large-scale landfills for big cities. It was revealed that even when water is clean at the point of production, it could be easily contaminated through broken pipelines or improperly maintained containers. It is still rare to put chlorine into piped water supply and both the inhabitants' and water engineers' understanding of the importance of disinfection should be reemphasised. Although it is urgent to provide piped water supply to those who have only contaminated water sources, such as surface water and dug wells, it is also important to protect these limited water sources from the above-mentioned contamination.