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Asked by smiley14 to Alex, Chris, Harriet, Jed, Ken on 20 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by codyrocksyoursocks.
Question: Do you save peoples lives by doing your job? If so how many do you think?
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Ken Gibbs answered on 20 Mar 2012:
I wish I could be precise, but as I cannot live everywhere all at the same time, and see my work “at work” as it were. So, this is where statistics come in (Yes, that’s a part of your mathematics. . . )
In the early 1980s, around 12,000 children under 5 years of age would die on average, every day, from drinking dirty water, from lack of sanitary loos and a lack of personal hygiene (keeping themselves clean with soap and water). Well, I and a lot of others have been working to change how many people have access to safe water and nice clean loos so that infections are not passed on in the same way that they were. Today, the best information coming out from the World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that the average number of children under 5 who die daily from those infections, has dropped to arounf 6,000 or about half the total in the 1980s. Remeber that the total population has grown a lot since the 1980s so that the rate is even lower than the numbers would imply.
How many of those were saved because of the work I personally have done ? I would not even hazard a guess. All I can say is that our work is nowhere near complete and we’re looking for others to help continue it. Would you be interested in it by any chance ?
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Jed Ramsay answered on 21 Mar 2012:
In my current job, it’s very rare that I would build anything that would save lives. The UK is a pretty safe place already! Although during a flood I work with the emergency services to respond and protect people and I think I have helped in those times.
I was also a fireman for a while and saved a few people’s lives for sure during that time, but my current job is more about improving the environment and rivers for everyone to enjoy.
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