By Patricia Simon On a hot summer day, most Americans can turn on the kitchen faucet and fill thei

r glass with cool drinking water. Unfortunately, that is not the case for nearly one billion people around the world, particularly in southern Africa where Firs t Lady Michelle Obama recently visited. During her visit to South Africa and Botswana, Mrs. Obama focused on health and education. To improve global health and education, access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation is essential. Creating a healthy lifestyle begins with clean water. Diseases related to unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation are the biggest single challenge in globa l public health. According to UNICEF, diarrhea often caused by poor sanitation o r unsafe drinking water, is the second leading cause of child death in the world today, and the top cause of child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. A lot of tim e and money is spent trying to improve the health of children in sub-Saharan Afr ica by developing vaccines and medications. Yet, simple prevention measures, lik e safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education are frequently ignored. The widespread deadly impact of water-related diseases is often overlooked by th e global health community. One disease that has not been overlooked and has gained the attention of the Fir st Lady is HIV/AIDS. To the 34 million people living with HIV today, access to w ater and sanitation is vital to their survival. The relationship between safe dr inking water and sanitation and proper HIV/AIDS care has been overlooked. A hous ehold with an HIV/AIDS positive family member requires more water than other hou seholds for medicine, bathing and laundry. If that water is unsafe to drink, the compromised immune system of the family member with AIDS is not able to fight o ff dangerous waterborne diseases like diarrhea, which can prevent the body from absorbing important nutrients. In addition, studies show that infections from wa ter- and sanitation-related diseases, combined with the immune suppression, can accelerate the progression of HIV to AIDS. Mrs. Obama promoted HIV prevention on her trip to Botswana. People seldom realiz e that access to water reduces the spread of HIV. Evidence has shown that when a community has sustainable access to water and sanitation, sexual violence, a ri sk factor for HIV, is reduced since women do not need to travel outside the vill age to collect water. Access to clean water can benefit women and girls in other ways as well, specifically when it comes to education. As a former school teacher, I understand the value of providing young children, particularly girls, with the educational tools to succeed. For a girl in rural I ndia, access to safe drinking water and sanitation is just as important as schoo l books, pens and paper are to a girl in Chicago. In a community without access to water, about 26 percent of a young girl s time is spent walking to collect oftentimes dirty water for her family. The time the yo ung girl takes to walk the average of 3.5 miles each day to collect water could be spent in school gaining the skills needed to improve her life. Lack of water is not the only barrier to a girl s education. A toilet is more impo rtant to improving a young girl s life than you might think. When gender-specific latrines are not available at school, girls who are menstruating will not use th e school facilities, resulting in absenteeism of 10-20 percent. This often leads to high dropout rates and increased illiteracy, which perpetuates the cycle of poverty. The toilet and water faucet we take for granted are vital to two pillars of Pres ident Obama s foreign development assistance plan, global health and education. In

2009, President Obama gave a percent of his Nobel Peace Prize money to Africare . The money was used to complete a water, sanitation, hygiene and health project in Ghana. Thanks to President Obama, 80 new latrines have been built in the Gha naian district of Wassa Amenfi. These latrines will help lower the rate of diarr hea and help more girls go to school. My husband, the late Senator Paul Simon from Illinois, inspired the Water for th e Poor Act. Since its enactment in 2005, it has made a tangible difference in th e world. In 2009 alone the U.S. provided improved the water supply to more than 6.4 million people and more than 3.4 million people with first-time access to im proved sanitation. The U.S. government has brought water to millions of people, yet there are still millions yearning for a glass of safe drinking water. Let s co ntinue this momentum and help Michelle and Barack Obama s mission of improving glo bal health and education by improving access to safe drinking water and sanitati on. Patricia Simon has worked for the Illinois Superintendent of Public Instruction Office as a higher education specialist and served on the Public Information Com mittee for the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention. Since her husband s death in 2003, she has remained active in pursuing some projects Sen. Simon started, e specially those related to water, and promoting the Paul Simon Public Policy Ins titute at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. http://waterfilterbusiness.info