AJ Frankelis

May 9, 2017
Lucarelli 5-6
Yesterday

The Clean Water Act started in 1948 when the first major US law was passed. Once this
law was in effect, other countries caught on and a push for clean water swept the world. It
officially became the Clean Water Act in 1972 when the last amendment was made. Soon after,
the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA for short, has inserted pollution control programs
in many countries. They control how much waste is allowed to be dropped into the water and
they decided what the legal qualification is for water to be potable. The EPA is also funded the
construction of sewage treatment plants. The Clean Water Act made it illegal to allow pollution
to float into navigable waters unless a permit is given. South Africa is the main community
where the Clean Water Act was directed to. Over 319 million people in the Sub-Saharan region
of Africa are without potable, reliable drinking sources. That was striking enough to allow the
EPA to control water pollution and set up the push for clean water worldwide. The national
government in South Africa provided no help in allowing the people to have clean water and
sanitation services. The Department of Water Affairs was given the responsibility to provide the
people of South Africa with a clean water source which is accessible at anytime. They also
needed to provide sanitation for the community. Finally in 1996, South Africa had a new national
government and they drafted a constitution which provided South Africans with environmental
laws. These laws included the right to clean, accessible water and allowed them to live in an
environment that was not harmful to their well-being. I chose this topic because clean water is a
necessity for a human to live a healthy life and survive. Many governments let this go unseen
and let whole countries suffer from not having a clean source of water. This problem of not
having potable water to drink has gone unnoticed for hundreds of years. People have been living
off polluted water for years and no one noticed or cared until it started to affect humans bodily
functions. Most, if not all, people had a disease after consuming the polluted water that they had
to work to get.