As Earth’s population has continued to grow, reaching 7 billion people in 2011, much of the planet’s available fresh water has become polluted, making it unfit for drinking, cooking, or bathing, and contributing to deadly maladies known as waterborne illnesses. This book will provide an overview of waterborne illnesses and explain the magnitude of the problem. Individual chapters focus on defining and explaining waterborne illnesses, such as Cholera, Dysentery, Hepatitis A, Polio, Typhoid Fever, and SARs, identifying sources of water contamination and geographic areas most affected, and exploring how natural disasters may greatly magnify the problem. Global efforts to prevent waterborne illness are also discussed.