Access To Clean Water In Haiti

According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2012, “783 million people, or 11 per cent of the global population, remain without access to an improved source of drinking water. Such sources include household connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collections.” (United Nations, 2012) The United Nations Water Conference in 1977 along with a few other conferences, addressed helping approximately “1.3 billion people in developing countries gain access to safe drinking water.” (United Nations, 2012) While there is progress being made, we see that various regions without clean drinking water. Reports show, “In four of nine developing regions, 90 per cent or more of the population now uses an improved drinking water source. In contrast, coverage remains very low in Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa, neither of which is on track to meet the MDG drinking water target by 2015. Over 40 per cent of all people without improved drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa.” (United Nations, 2012) It is shown that rural areas still lack drinkable water as opposed to urban areas. Consistent improvement has been made to supply populated areas with a reliable source of drinking water. However, research shows, “Coverage with improved drinking water sources for rural populations is still lagging. In 2010, 96 per cent of the urban population used an

Main Point: Third world countries lack accessibility to clean water exposing them to disease and harmful toxins that result in 2.4 million deaths annually (Bartram, 2010).

Around the world people are suffering from the problem of having a safe and clean water, there are more than 633 million people lack access to safe water. Remote countries in Africa are mostly the victim of having unsanitary water sources.

Out of all nations that publish water sanitation statistics, Haiti is the only country in which there are more individuals today without clean water than there were over twenty years ago (Gelting, Bliss, Patrick, Lockhart, & Handzel, 2013, p. 665). This is largely due to the water crisis occurring in Haiti over the last century. Haiti’s struggles can be derived from the nation’s inability to withstand and recover from natural disasters, economic instability, societal wealth discrepancy, and a cholera outbreak. These differing facets can all be analyzed through the natural, social, and political perspectives in order to demonstrate the severity of the Haitian water crisis, the failure of current attempts at resolution, and the need for further

Compounding this lack of care, Haitians also lack clean drinking water and proper sanitation systems. Less than half the population has access to clean drinking water, a rate that is only surpassed by civil war-torn African nations. Even worse, half the population of Haiti can be categorized as “food insecure,” and this malnutrition has created a generation where half of all Haitian children are undersized (IFRC, 2010). In addition, this poor sanitation and hygiene, coupled with inadequate nutrition, have contributed to exceptionally high levels of individuals with chronic, yet often at best ill-treated, conditions.

Thanks to the United Nations general assembly recognizing the need for clean water in Resolution 64/292, the states and international organizations have been called on to provide funding and resources to help developing countries provide safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water to all. This is a step in the right direction, seeing as women and children in some countries have to walk more than 30 minutes to collect water- if there is any water to collect at all.

The earthquake of 2010 altered the way the people of Haiti looked at everyday life, as well as, it caused them to be deprived of all hope on creating a new beginning. On Tuesday January 12, 2010, the Haitian society knew that their world would never be the same. Having killed over 300,000 people and wounded more than 200,000 people, the magnitude 7.0 earthquake was demoralizing to the Haitians (“The 2010 Haiti Earthquake”). To make matters worse, following the magnitude 7.0 earthquake there were twelve aftershocks containing a magnitude larger than 5.0 (“Earthquake in Haiti”). The outcome of the earthquake was devastating to the extent that the minority of people who survived stood on the remains of their churches, grocery stores, and even their own homes. Corporations like Merlin USA and others around the globe are contributing in various ways to help try to rebuild Haiti’s nation. Working to repair Haiti’s demolished society, Merlin tries to bring appropriate health care to all susceptible associations in Haiti (“Haiti”). Strongly, Merlin continues to put in a great effort and they have tended to around 47,986 patients merely in Port-au-Prince (“Haiti”). Sorrowfully, people are constantly dying from Cholera in Haiti; nevertheless, it seems to them that nothing the world can offer will be able to cure the adversity they have encountered.

Water, like food, is a necessity for human life that is used for many purposes such as agricultural, industrial, and domestic systems. While water is a common element around the world not all of it is clean and able to be consumed or used by humans. With only a percentage of the world’s water being clean and the use of water increasing, the availability of water around the world has become a common issue in the developing and even the developed world. This may be a smaller problem in areas close to clean water sources compared to areas far from a clean water source but, the availability of water is not strictly based on location, it also depends on the specific political and social needs and issues of the area as well. These all become issues that must be accounted for when deciphering whether water is a basic human right or a commodity and what action must be taken to aid the developing water systems in community’s that lack them.

One of the greatest issues that we encountered in Haiti was the lack of access to clean drinking water. The water that is delivered

Whenever they are hungry, this is the only thing that will keep them full. An important thing they do not have is access to fresh drinking. Although, they have been using this water bathing or cooling methods. This shows that more diseases in the water are exposed to Haitians. Feeding the people of Haiti is a way to help restore good health and nutrition. We can send volunteers to help teach families how to cook meals, food donations can be sent including non perishable items, and cases of water bottles sent to help replenish to proper

The cholera outbreak in Haiti in the late part of 2010 raised a lot of question within the community and abroad. As the country tried to recover from the horrible devastation of the earthquake. Speculation has arose among many human right organizations within Haiti and internationally that the United Nation (UN) have accidental or purposeful dumped waste in the population’s drinking water. In a short period of time, many were infected or have died from the cholera infection. The ethical dilemma comes from the vulnerability of the Haitian population failed infrastructure and the missed steps in protocol by the UN. While the core value of the UN missions, or any other peace keeping mission to say the least, is to “do not harm”, nonetheless harm

Two out of every five people living in Sub-Saharan Africa lack safe water. A baby there is 500 times more likely to die from water-related illness than one from the United States. This is a serious ongoing issue that requires the rest of the world to take action. Water spreads diseases easily if the necessary precautions are not taken. Many developing African countries don’t have sewage treatment, or the people don’t have methods to filter and disinfect. Once a person is sick either there is no way to cure them, or medical care is too expensive, so they are left untreated with a high risk of death. Although many believe that the fight for sanitary water in Africa is insurmountable, people in these developing countries can overcome their challenge to access clean water and avoid water-borne diseases through proper sewage treatment facilities, universal water filtration and medical care.

The purpose of this research paper is to discuss the water crisis in the region of Africa and how water can cause many other problems such as inadequate sanitation, poverty and diseases for the population. People living in third world countries are suffering from the water crisis that has become a major problem for the United Nations, World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund, Millennium Development Goals and many of the other organizations. For some of these organizations have been successful in providing a bit more water through the years it’s still a working process. Water is essential for life, it’s not just for the body’s physical need; yet millions of people do not have access to clean water. The lack of accessible of fresh water contributes too many diseases such as HIV, AIDS, waterborne diseases, causing the death of millions of women and children annually in the region. This is making it harder for the communities to develop a safer home for their families and to improve the conditions of the country. This research paper will examine the problems, solutions and causes. How it all comes together, to contribute to this water crisis and to weather there is a solutions set by the United Nations, studies that have been conducted and other organizations, which can maybe work for the years to come. In addition, the same water problems are going to be discussed with regard to Africa for statics, examples and quotes done by the organizations in the past and

Access to clean water is a basic human right and yet people around the world don’t have that right and they struggle to survive without it. The many uses of clean and potable water include water for drinking to cooking other daily purpose. It is reported that over 1.1 billion people lack access to an improved water resource and three million individuals, and majority of them children, suffer and die from water-related disease. The need to improve water quality and providing clean water should be major project for developed countries like the US and so called “well developed countries”.

It is an essential resource for sustaining life as well as central to agriculture and rural development, and is intrinsically linked to global challenges of food insecurity and poverty, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as degradation and depletion of natural resources that affect the livelihoods of millions of people across the world. According to the World Bank, (2010) report, water is a scarce resource with multiple interwoven uses that range from drinking water, energy, irrigation, manufacturing things, transport of people and goods among others. The report further states that, more than one-sixth of the Worlds’ population does not have access to safe drinking water, with 80% living in rural areas thus access to water cannot not be guaranteed globally.