Water for health: a serious challenge to realize sustainable development goals

Abstract

Getting clean water is a human right and human life will be threatened by diseases
that consume unclean water. Family awareness of accessing clean water is still
minimal, this fact has become a serious challenge for the government in finding
solutions to the complexity of the problems in meeting family needs to obtain
clean water so that their health is maintained. This phenomenology research aims
to explore the use of water by families in riverbank settlements to meet their daily
needs. Interviews, observations, field notes were carried out on 7 families on the
banks of the river. Three themes are produced: families rely on rivers to meet their
needs for water, rivers become dumps and garbage, use of river water is
considered not to have a negative impact on health. Low understanding of
families, economic factors, lifestyles are thought to be linked to the use of water.
It was concluded that family awareness and understanding of the importance of
using clean water for health had not been optimal. Government facilitation is
needed for access to clean water and an educational approach to raising awareness
of families living on the banks of rivers.

Keywords: clean water, family, health, river banks