Water: An Economic or Social Good?

Water is a critical natural resource for life and for development. This vital resource is however fugitive and finite. The conferment of such attributes on water suggests that the resource has to be managed from both economic and social standpoints otherwise some people will go without water. The paper thus reviews concepts and principles which relate to the management of water as both an economic and a social good. The argument which sticks out in the discussion is that trade-offs and compromises have to be made between treating water as an economic good and as a social good. Treatment of water as a social good encourages the inefficient and wasteful use of water. At the same time, treatment of water as an economic good would exclude other people from accessing this vital resource. Thus it is argued that water should be provided to the users taking into consideration that it is both an economic and a social imperative. The global search for solutions to the problems of water scarcity and increasing demand on the available finite freshwater reserves should continue. In this vein, efforts should and must be made to impress upon consumers of this all-important resource to appreciate the economic and social value of water

A systematic critical review of epidemiological studies on public health concerns of municipal solid waste handling

AIMS : The ultimate aim of this review was to summarise the epidemiological evidence on the association between municipal solid waste management operations and health risks to populations residing near landfills and incinerators, waste workers and recyclers. To accomplish this, the sub-aims of this review article were to (1) examine the health risks posed by municipal solid waste management activities, (2) determine the strengths and gaps of available literature on health risks from municipal waste management operations and (3) suggest possible research needs for future studies.METHODS : The article reviewed epidemiological literature on public health concerns of municipal solid waste handling published in the period 1995-2014. The PubMed and MEDLINE computerised literature searches were employed to identify the relevant papers using the keywords solid waste, waste management, health risks, recycling, landfills and incinerators. Additionally, all references of potential papers were examined to determine more articles that met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS : A total of 379 papers were identified, but after intensive screening only 72 met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Of these studies, 33 were on adverse health effects in communities living near waste dumpsites or incinerators, 24 on municipal solid waste workers and 15 on informal waste recyclers. Reviewed studies were unable to demonstrate a causal or non-causal relationship due to various limitations. CONCLUSION : In light of the above findings, our review concludes that overall epidemiological evidence in reviewed articles is inadequate mainly due to methodological limitations and future research needs to develop tools capable of demonstrating causal or non-causal relationships between specific waste management operations and adverse health endpoints.http://pph.sagepub.comhb2017School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH