In situ Remediation Technologies Associated with Sanitation Improvement: An Opportunity for Water Quality Recovering in Developing Countries

The access to safe water is of great importance to reduce the spread of diseases caused by water-related pathogens and to assure the life quality to the human-beings. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2011), diarrhea, for example, is responsible for two million deaths every year, mainly among children under the age of five. The environmental effects of some pollutants (e.g. endocrine disruptors, organic compounds) remain unclear and the harmful consequences of the exposure to contaminated water are certainly an important issue for the next decades. Moreover, many research have linked water quality to health problems, such as cancer (Rodrigues et al., 2003; Han et al., 2009), insufficient uptake of nutrients and trace-metals (Lind & Glynn 1999), diabetes, cerebrovascular and kidney disease (Meliker et al., 2007).