The Importance of Water Filters

By: Danwoo Kim

March 31, 2025

Introduction

Africa is considered a staple continent, referenced in thousands of case studies, articles, and general science reviews on nutrition scarcity, poverty, and socioeconomic unbalance. And this is for good reason. With 1.34 billion people from Africa alone facing water scarcity as of March 2024, they make up nearly a fourth of the total number of people facing water scarcity in the world.

Water filter pitcher.

With this prevalent issue of water scarcity just from one continent alone, there is a steady rise in the already vast number of people utilizing and drinking from unsanitary bodies of water filled with grime, excrement, and dirt. And with this comes the increasing spread of pathogens, causing the spread of disease, which is amplified by the weak immune systems of impoverished communities, along with a lack of proper disease control.

The Problem Without Water Filters

Common waterborne illnesses consist of E. coli, cryptosporidiosis, shigellosis, norovirus, and Legionella [2]. When pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria, contaminate water through excrement or various contamination in the water, they can be transmitted to humans through everyday usage, such as A.C. units, humidifiers, showers, and drinking water.  As of 2022, 1.7 billion people used water contaminated with excrement as a primary source of drinking water. With approximately 505,000 diarrhoeal deaths due to microbiologically contaminated [5], the importance of drinking safe water is now brought into quantitative analysis.

Of course, the United States has long since been made aware of the risks of contaminated water and has achieved early recognition of potential outbreaks with contaminated water. From 1971-2008, outbreaks in all fifty states were reported to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to be mitigated early, and since 2009, outbreaks have been reported online through the National Outbreak Reporting System [1]. However, while America has made countermeasures to contaminated water and potential risks of pathogens, people in impoverished communities struggle to counter these pathogens that are inflicted upon them through contaminated water. 

Potential Solutions:

Water filters are responsible for most of the clean water in the world, enabling the filtration of dirt, grime, and harmful pathogens through physical barriers (such as membranes/sieves) or chemical processes (ex., involving copper or zinc) [3r]. They are essential to the process of cleaning squalid water tarnished by excrement and grime, along with the process of reusing water that has been used for various activities. With plumbing systems spreading nationally throughout nearly every city, the spread of disease would be accelerated beyond imaginable limitations without the cleaning process of water filters.

As such, the importance of water filters can be seen, and they should be made more aware in places such as Africa, where poverty and lack of food and proper clothing, and political unrest take priority over lack of access to clean drinking water. Efforts of organizations focused on the importance of water should prioritize access to clean drinking water through the correct utilization of water filters in countries all across the world, not only in Africa, thereby prompting advancements in humanity’s battle against harmful pathogens.

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References:

1. CDC. (2024, June 6). About Waterborne Disease Surveillance. Waterborne Disease and  Outbreak Surveillance Reporting. https://www.cdc.gov/healthy-water-data/about/index.html

2. Department of Health. (2019). Causes and Symptoms of Waterborne Illness - Minnesota Dept. of Health. State.mn.us. https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/waterborne/basics.html

3. How Water Filtration Systems Work | NuWater. (2023, June 28). NuWater Water Treatment Solutions South Africa. https://nuwater.com/how-water-filtration-systems-work/

4. Nkatha, K. (2024, March 22). Water woes: 13 undeniable facts about Africa’s water scarcity. Greenpeace Africa. https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/blog/55086/water-woes-13-undeniable-facts-about-africas-water-scarcity/

5. World Health Organization. (2023, September 13). Drinking Water. World Health Organization; World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water