Education and awareness building
Improving water quality, preventing point and non-point
source pollution, treating wastewater before disposal, and
restoring the quality of waterways all require political will.
Education and awareness-building campaigns play a critical
role in building community knowledge and support for
the importance of protecting and improving water quality.
This support for water quality improvements can lead to
increased pressure on policy makers and elected officials
to implement legislation and regulations to protect water
quality, improve enforcement of these regulations, and
increase the willingness on the part of the policymakers and
elected officials to act.
In much of the developed world, the impetus for
improvements in water quality arose in the nineteenth
century, at the time the Public Health movement was born
in England. Ongoing media attention combined with public