Water quality is certainly an issue, especially for the environment. I wonder however, if we do not overestimate the importance of water quality when it comes to health. Did anybody see the part "Fear of Germs" of "You are all diseased" by George Carlin? Carlin uses a fools argument (Polio had no prayer with us because we were tempered in raw shit) but sometimes these comprise some truth.

On the other hand the discussion about clean water and hygiene destructs us from poverty in general, which is certainly a cause of death. Ok, very often poor hygienic conditions are linked to poverty but what is the cause and what the effect? Most often the root problem is poverty. Poverty however, and with it malnutrition, is spreading despite all the alleged claims to fight it. Not because the developing countries aren't able to handle their economies but because they are helpless against exploitation by the large and powerful economies. So the question is whether it wouldn't be more efficient to educate inhabitants of developed countries about the consequences of their pirate economies then putting a lot of effort into the dissemination of the concept of germs in developing countries.

"Developing nations must deal with both waterborne microbial diseases and toxics without much funding and with dense concentrations of humans in burgeoning cities." is written above. That is only partly true. Slums are the fastest growing settlements presently. Again they are linked to poverty and actually the distribution of wealth. Venezuela is changing the distribution of wealth much to the opposition of its upper class and foreign countries. And the condition of the poor population is reported to be improving? Does anybody have more details? Other countries do not have the potential of Venezuela or other, less valued resources, e.g. coffee, cocoa..., which are not paid at their cost by the mostly rich consumers, making the producers poor and causing their death when they have to abandon their fields to seek a new chance in "burgeoning cities" (Jean Ziegler, The New Masters of The World).

"Industrialized nations now deal with toxic chemical compounds (metals, radionuclides, and synthetic organics)." is missing the issue that the industrialised countries are the big polluters, not least of water. The USA are dumping DU all over the world, from Kosovo to Iraq and Afghanistan. The industrialised countries are producing and releasing into water huge quantities of endocrine disruptors, which actually threaten the fertility of our oceans. The industrialised countries have introduced industrial farming needing and releasing into water bodies, from groundwater to estuaries, ever increasing amounts of reactive nitrogen (see the International Nitrogen Initiative), third important cause for global warming and causing enormous damage along our costs.

While developing countries need our assistance, technical, yes, but especially financial in the form of correct payment of their resources we are consuming, which will also alleviate the hygiene problem of their inhabitants, the big polluters are at home and that is where we have to seek and find sustainable solutions most urgently.

Looking forward to your arguments.