Resource information
This report focuses on one specific
interaction: the role of forests, and particularly protected
forests, in maintaining quality of drinking water for large
cities. There are many reasons for this focus: many city
dwellers already face a crisis of water quality, and
contaminated water spreads a vast and largely unnecessary
burden in terms of short and long-term health impacts
including infant mortality, with knock-on effects on ability
to work, industrial productivity and on already
over-stretched health services. The poorest members of
society, unable to afford sterilized or bottled water,
suffer the greatest impacts. Similar problems affect the
rural poor as well of course, and sometimes these can be
even more severe. However, in a rapidly urbanizing world the
scale of the problem facing cities is particularly acute.
