冠狀病毒時代的水

冠狀病毒時代的水

March 22 is World Water Day. As we lock down economies to battle the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we need to understand just how critical the issue of water — clean, safe and accessible for all — is.

3月22日是世界水日。當(dāng)我們鎖定經(jīng)濟(jì)以抗擊新型冠狀病毒疾病(covid19)時，我們需要了解水的問題有多么重要——清潔、安全和人人可及。

Today, the only defence against the pandemic is that we wash our hands frequently — 20 seconds each time. The fact is, clean water remains the most important preventive health measure in the world.

今天，唯一的防御措施就是我們經(jīng)常洗手——每次20秒。事實上，清潔水仍然是世界上最重要的預(yù)防保健措施。

As we confront the new global enemy, the availability of water will be a crucial determinant for a successful outcome in this war.

在我們面對新的全球敵人時，水的供應(yīng)將是這場戰(zhàn)爭取得成功的關(guān)鍵決定因素。

Most of us are comforted by the fact that we can get water from our taps; if we find that to be not clean enough, we simply switch to buying and drinking bottled water. We opt out of the public water system and move to private water, forgetting two things:

我們中的大多數(shù)人都很欣慰，因為我們可以從水龍頭里取水;如果我們發(fā)現(xiàn)水不夠干凈，我們就干脆改買瓶裝水喝。我們選擇退出公共供水系統(tǒng)，轉(zhuǎn)向私人供水，別忘了兩件事：

One, the water we buy also comes from public sources — in most cases, groundwater.

首先，我們購買的水也來自公共資源——在大多數(shù)情況下，是地下水。

Two, even if we buy bottled water because it is ‘safe’ to drink, we still excrete water as urine — the more water we use, the more sewage we generate.

第二，即使我們買瓶裝水是因為喝起來“安全”，我們還是會以尿液的形式排泄水——我們用的水越多，產(chǎn)生的污水就越多。

If this sewage is not intercepted and then taken for treatment, it will add to pollution and degrade waterbodies. We are back to square one, in terms of dirty water.

如果這些污水不被截流后再加以處理，就會增加污染并破壞水體。就臟水而言，我們又回到原點了。

The water crisis is a health crisis. Take the coronavirus. The 20-second hand wash, advised to kill the virus, would mean roughly 1.5-2 litres per wash; washing hands frequently would mean we need between 15-20 litres of water per person; a household of five would need 100 litres only for handwashing.

水危機是一種健康危機。冠狀病毒期間，建議的20秒洗手意味著每次大約1.5-2升;勤洗手意味著我們每人需要15-20升水;一個五口之家就需要100升水洗手。

Even assuming that you do not leave the tap running when you rub your hand with soap, water consumption will be high. But it is necessary to keep the virus away and to keep you safe.

即使假設(shè)你在用肥皂搓手的時候不讓水龍頭開著，用水量也會很高。但為了遠(yuǎn)離病毒，保證安全我們必須這么做。

This then is the challenge. A large numbers of people in India and vast parts of the still emerging world do not have access to water, forget its portability. How then will they be free of the virus?

這就是挑戰(zhàn)所在。在印度和新興世界的大部分地區(qū)，有大量的人沒有水，更別提它的便攜性了。那么他們怎樣才能擺脫病毒呢?

The pandemic teaches us that we are as weak as the weakest link in the chain — the contagion needs us to ensure that everybody has access to public health so that nobody is left out and nobody can be the carrier of the virus.

疫情大肆傳播告訴我們，我們就像這個鏈條中最薄弱的一環(huán)一樣脆弱——傳染病需要我們確保每個人都能獲得公共衛(wèi)生服務(wù)，這樣就不會有任何人被排除在外，也不會有人成為病毒的攜帶者。

It is the same with water. If people do not have access to clean water, they will not be able to prevent the spread of the disease.

水也是一樣的。如果人們得不到干凈的水，就無法防止疾病的傳播。

So, access to clean water, is not just a fundamental right, it is absolutely necessary for preventing and controlling diseases.

因此，獲得清潔用水，不僅是一項基本權(quán)利，更是預(yù)防和控制疾病的絕對必要條件。