Despite the vital importance of water to all aspects of
human life, the sector has been plagued by a chronic lack of political support,
poor governance and underinvestment. Access to clean drinking water and basic
sanitation facilities could transform the lives of millions in the world's
poorest countries, but Dirty water and a lack of basic sanitation are
undermining efforts to end extreme poverty and disease in the world's poorest
countries.
Today, more than one out of nine people in the world lack
access to safe drinking water, namely 783 million people, and more than two out
of five, lack adequate sanitation (2.5 billion people). Every 20 seconds, a
child dies as a result of poor sanitation that is 1.5 million preventable
deaths each year. Seen over a day, more than 4,500 children die from waterborne
diseases.
Africa presently reels under serious water challenges.
Water-based challenges such as widespread shortage, pollution, degradation,
flooding and poor water management in cities and rural centres are problems
which dot the African landscape today.
This state of affairs is further compounded as the world
gets warmer, the rains pour heavier and oceans rise, making rural inhabitants
migrate to cities in their millions. African cities are under dual pressure
from uncontrolled urbanisation and flooding, worsened by climate-induced water
stress.
Poverty
When we talk about poverty, we primarily refer to the
economically disadvantaged groups of people across wide swaths of the globe,
mainly in Africa and Asia that survive on subsistence farming or incomes of
less than $2 per day. There were 2.4 billion people living in this
situation in 2010.
The global rate of extreme poverty, defined as the
percentage of those living on less than $1.25 per day, was halved between 1990
and 2010.
Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, remains mired in poverty.
Its progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals lags behind
that of other regions. The percentage of the population living in absolute
poverty is essentially the same as it was 25 years ago.
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa store only about 4% of their
annual renewable flows, compared with 70%-90% in many developed countries, yet
water storage is essential to ensure reliable sources of water for irrigation,
water supply and hydropower and to provide a buffer for flood management.
Access to water
In that same twenty-year period, the global proportion of
people living without access to clean water was halved as well, with 2.3
billion people gaining access to improved drinking water between 1990 and 2018.
Currently, 748 million people live without access to safe water and 2.5 billion
live without adequate sanitation.
Employment
For those who live without safe water, adequate sanitation,
and effective hygiene practices, water-borne disease is a constant threat to
health, keeping people out of the work force and in poverty. Over 40 billion
productive hours are lost each year to fetching water in sub-Saharan Africa.
About half of the developing world’s hospital beds are
occupied by people with water-related illness.
Education
Water and poverty are linked in education; preventable,
water-borne disease keeps children out of school. An estimated 443 million
school days are lost each year from water-related illness.
In many cases, children are too sick with diarrhea and other
water-borne diseases like typhoid, cholera, or dysentery to go to school or
must care for sick family members instead of going to class.
Children also must help their families retrieve safe water
from long distances if it is not available nearby.
When the school does not have sanitation facilities, even a
simple latrine, children must defecate in the open or miss class while they
find someplace to go to the bathroom. This not only makes them miss class, it
facilitates the further spread of disease.
Governance
When there is no safe water and sanitation, people are more
vulnerable to powerful or wealthy individuals and groups that threaten their
security and resources.
On the other hand when the community members are equipped
and empowered to help themselves get access to safe water, sanitation, and
hygiene often lead to more productive collaboration in other areas, like
education, ecological stewardship, and small business. Community achievement is
contagious and transformative.
Women
Women bear the heaviest burden when there is no safe water
and sanitation. In most places that lack these resources, women and girls in
developing countries spend most of their days gathering water for their
families, walking 5.6 kilometres on average each day to collect water. Girls
often drop out of primary school because their schools lack separate toilets
and easy access to safe water.
Universal access to water and sanitation could prevent
thousands of child deaths and free up hours each day for women and children to
go to work or school. This is especially true for girls - studies show that
girls are 12% more likely to go to school if water is available within a 15
minute walk rather than a one hour's walk which often puts them at risk of
assault and injury.
Where women have access to a nearby source of clean drinking
water, a toilet or latrine, and knowledge about good hygiene practices like
handwashing, they and their families thrive. They can use the time saved to
work in home-based businesses and agriculture as well as employment outside the
home. More girls can attend school, and for longer. They can break the cycle of
poverty and water-borne disease.
Disaster
Communities affected by disaster, either natural or
man-made, are more resilient if they have access to safe water and sanitation.
Communities with safe water have healthier members, whose bodies are more
resistant to illnesses that come with disaster and displacement.
When clean drinking water, latrines or toilets, and good
hygiene practices are present, people can recover from disaster more quickly.
Invest in safe water
Investment in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) promises
one of the highest rates of return of any development relating to water and
poverty.
A $1 investment in WASH yields $3-$34 in economic return. but
lack of WASH can cost up to 5% of a country’s GDP. In fact, no single
intervention is more likely to have a significant impact on global poverty than
the provision of safe water.
And despite the global decline in open defecation, in 39
countries the practice has actually increased over the past 17 years. The
majority of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa and the wastes produced
goes into the ground and water sources.
As a result, hundreds of millions of people around the world
remain trapped in poverty and ill health and exposed to the risks of
water-related disasters, environmental degradation and even political
instability and conflict. Population growth, increasing consumption and climate
change are among the factors that threaten to exacerbate these problems, with
grave implications for human security and development.
Development partners will have to support Africa’s quest to
develop its capacities for the implementation of SDG6, especially in the
development of bankable water and sanitation projects. Closing inequality gaps
in the accessibility, quality and availability of water, sanitation and hygiene
should be at the heart of government funding and planning strategies.
Governments must, however, lead the efforts while external
agencies work in a way that supports and builds government capacity to lead and
to succeed. All stakeholders must therefore commit to work collectively and
adhere to key behaviours that strengthen countries’ capabilities to deliver
permanent and accountable access to water and sanitation services.
Finally, It is clear that urgent action is needed if we are
to avoid a global water crisis.. Together, we must all aim to ensure
sustainable access to safe water and sanitation for the most vulnerable
communities through innovative partnerships, creativity and the power of art
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