Solution
Arunavo answered on
Apr 26 2021
ENVIORNMENTAL MANAGEMENT 1
ENVIORNMENTAL MANAGEMENT 4
ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSEEMENT
ISSUE OF CLEAN DRINKING WATER FOR ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Safe Water Issue in Australia 3
Initiatives Taken by the Government and the Identified Loopholes 4
Socio Economic Factors Behind Indigenous Group 5
Cu
ent Policies in Water Management in Australia 7
Conclusion 9
References 11
Introduction
Safe and clean drinking water availability is the basic right for everyone. However, in the world where two third portion is covered with water, there is a huge scarcity of clean drinkable water around the globe. The major reason behind this situation is because of contaminated water, use of pure drinkable water for agricultural use, hydroelectric generation and industrial developments uses major portion of safe drinkable water. Hence, this is turning out to be a global problem along with its significant increase in Australia has also been observed for last couple of years. The situation has become more severe for the aboriginal group of people because of there limited access towards the basic needs of life, including safe drinking water. In this report a detailed discussion is done with respect to the situation of drinking water problem for aboriginal community along with the role of government and different agencies to address this issue. The discussion is also done with respect to the effectiveness of the policies regulations and the initiative to manage this challenge.
Safe Water Issue in Australia
There are many Australians, who do not have the access to the safe drinking water. The situation is however, grimmer in the indigenous group because as discussed by Israr et al. (2017) because indigenous people experience lower levels of health compared with the general community people. Health and comfort are inclined by the admittance of safe drinking water, cleanliness outcome and wastewater handling. The situation is highlighted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for Water (SDG 6). Be
ington & Unerman (2018) have discussed that the goal of United Nations SDG 6 program is to safeguard the access to water and cleanliness for all by 2030. However, the indigenous group in Australia experience very lower quality of water access and other services, and this also varies significantly from the u
an and the rural areas. Grealy & Howey (2020) have discussed that there has been investments in and towards the admittance to WASH services that have enhanced in the last few years for the indigenous community people, who are suffering from challenges with safe drinking water, constant hygiene facilities and the related health matters of the community.
In the report discussed by Russell & Ens (2020) that in the late 1920, the seventh Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage evaluation had recognized the health results for the indigenous societies, especially for those who are living at the remote places are negotiated by a range of environmental wellbeing issues with their societies. Concerning the availability of safe drinking water, the access of water for all for drinking and domestic uses have been informed within the isolated societies across Australia. However, the source for the drinking water can be minimised and flexible with respect to the location, the accessibility and the availability. Further discussed by Kroon et al. (2019) the water supply to the isolated societies is affected by the economies of scale, high rate of delivery costs, increased demand, high maintenance cost, lower levels of cost recovery, and there is uncertainty towards willingness from the consumers for the contribution towards the improved service levels.
Initiatives Taken by the Government and the Identified Loopholes
The Australian government has taken a lot of initiatives particularly for the indigenous group of people for maintaining the public health standards by making the availability of safe drinking water. McFarlane & Ha
is (2018) have discussed that this initiative along with the safe drinking water provision is also providing physical environmental protection through the availability of adequate wastewater treatment plants in the remote communities under the te
itory of the Australian government jurisdiction. Hence, these communities need to adhere according to the same standards as it is in the u
an areas, where the guidance will be taken from the Australian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines.
With respect to the sanitation, the council of Australian Government’s strategy on Water and Wastewater Services in Remote communities, including the indigenous communities has been receiving national funds since 2006 for the centralised water treatment infrastructure in order to shift their focus away from the septic tanks (Hedges et al., 2021). However, there are evidence that despite of improvements in the wastewater services, there has been an evidence of poor maintenance of wastewater treatment facilities. Satur & Robertson (2020) have discussed that in the year 2015 an audit was conducted from Western Australia, which have noted that there is a high rate of remote communities have inadequate testing of wastewater system, which has resulted into potentially prolonged
eakdowns, leakage and overflows.
Similarly, on the hygiene factors the remote communities, particularly the indigenous community experience hygiene related disease at a considerably higher rate (Bradford et al., 2018). This situation has occu
ed because of the fact that indigenous adult population in the remote areas are living in the overcrowded conditions, which almost three times higher with respect to the non-remote areas. Jackson et al. (2019) have discussed that around 28 percent people are living in dwelling where there is unavailability of more than one services, such as water for washing people, clothes and bedding, safely removal of waste and enabling the safe storage and cooking of food. Hence, there must be more focus by the Australian government regarding the promotion of health hygiene and behavioural change among...