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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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If the TV ads are to be trusted, the major health risks for international travelers come from putting ice cubes in the drinks containing hepatitis A & B during their vacation trips to Caribbean. In fact the problem doesn't come only from the ice cubes, it isn't only about the hepatitis, and of course it isn't only about Caribbean. The real problem for those who plan to travel and to settle down in new places is that the fresh water and everything that goes with it may be hazardous for our health.

According to a report issued by the UN special health agency WHO no less than 20% of the world population worldwide is drinking unsafe water. In some regions, e.g. Sub-Sahara Africa, the percentage goes as high as 40%. These numbers as alarmist as they may appear in fact hide the real proportions of the danger. People who drink unsafe water have just no safer options. In many other countries that aren't included in this alarmist reports they may have some, but the fresh water may still represent a danger, especially for the new comers, foreign tourists and expatriates.

There is a clear correlation between the economic development and the water treatment and purification development. This doesn't mean though that all developed countries offer safe fresh water all the time. Some of them do most of the time, especially in North America and Western Europe. For some there is still a long way ahead, especially in the newly industrialized nations and in the former communist countries.

Water is very important to our daily life, so our concerns with this essential element should be of prime significance when we plan to move to different country, in one line with the political and economic climate and with the real estate market conditions. An important thing to remember is that the individual means of water purification are either too expensive or too unreliable than finding a country, which have solved this problem by using centralized means. Trying to separate us in an artificially clean world from the dangers that hunt us next door are always doomed.

Washing hands with water containing bacteria may be as dangerous as washing fruits with such water. Some locally produced beers, which appear as safer alternatives to the fresh water may in fact be as dangerous because of incomplete sterilization. The same warning may be applied to locally bottled soft drinks. Boiling the water may appear as an absolute solution but in fact it not always kills all microorganisms and of course has no effect on the chemically contaminated water.

Looking at all possible individual solutions for the problem we can see that only a centralized and publicly managed system for chemical and biological water treatment and purification can make our lives more protected.