The situation of education for young girls in Sub-Saharan Africa is very complex, difficult and troublesome. A vast majority of girls don’t get the chance to enroll in primary education, leaving secondary education out of the question because their foremost responsibility is to gather water from a local source. If they are lucky enough to receive an education, many of the young girls are forced to drop out once they have hit puberty because the majority of schools do not provide proper sanitation systems, such as toilets. However, when speaking of local water sources in developing regions, like Sub-Saharan Africa, the term “local” is one that is used very loosely, as in some instances children are required to travel up to forty miles, carrying forty pounds of for the most part fairly dirty water. Water is the primary foundation of life, yet some individuals are forced to spend their days searching for it. Around one hundred and fifty-seven million people in the Eastern and Southern regions of Africa lack access to clean and safe water distribution systems and this causes the need to use external water sources. Due to the many burdens associated with lack of access to water, let alone clean water, such as basic sanitation, education becomes less of a priority. In African culture females hold the primary responsibility to maintain a clean home environment, cooking, cleaning and sanitation included, holding them responsible for the household water supply. A survey conducted in
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
Clean water is essential to our basic needs as human beings and has been acknowledged as a basic human right according to the UN as of July 28, 2010. Still, 1 in 9 (782 million) people don’t have access to clean water, 1 in 3 (2.5 billion) don’t have access to adequate sanitation which results in the spread of often fatal and preventable disease. In a world where 2 in 5 people own a smartphone, it’s easy to forget that for some people even the most basic necessities are hard to come by. Approximately 3.5 million people die every year due to inadequate water supplies. Access to sanitation and safe drinking water could save the lives of 1.5 million children each year.
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.
Rachel Pullan and her colleagues from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, getting proper sanitation and access to safe drinking water depends on the different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the study, geography made a difference in access to water; rural areas and households were less likely to have improved water and sanitation. The data from this study was gained by using statistical models to estimate that the rural households in over forty countries would have the least amount of access to some sort of clean water supply and proper sanitation facility. This would mean that in the rural countries, there would most likely be a higher rate of diarrheal diseases and based on their geographic location it would also mean the people in those areas would have a lower access to doctors, medical facilities, and healthcare which can mean a higher rate of
The thesis, The Water Crisis in Third World Countries, By Monterey Starkey from the Honors program at Liberty University describes the difficulty of obtaining adequate drinking water and presents solutions to this issue. Starkey begins by noting the importance water has on the human body. Additionally, Starkey explains, fresh water is becoming scarce which makes water transportation difficult to needy areas. Aquifers and rainwater are possible solutions to water transportation (Starkey 9). The cost of water in poverty-stricken are much higher than those in rich areas (Starkey 10). The article also implies water shortages affect community growth (15). Starkey believes filtering, boiling, chlorinating, educating, harvesting, roof catching and
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
Zola opened her exhausted eyes and woke Lulu, her sister. The two grabbed large tin buckets and tiptoed out of their tiny living space, to avoid waking their family. They crouched under the tiny door, their eyes blinded by the rising sun from the outdoors. They looked at each other with wide eyes, preparing themselves for the hours of walking they would be doing today. This is the daily life of an individual child in places such as Sub Saharan Africa, like Zola and Lulu, with no access to safe water. Safe water is water that is safe to consume, because it contains no harmful bacteria or contaminants.The access to safe water is a growing issue among people around the world, including several millions of people in areas such as Sub Saharan Africa,
Sub-Saharan Africa has the challenges with water sanitation. Only 68% of people living within the region have access to an improved water
According to Unicef, “Two out of every ten children do not make it to their fifth birthday due to a water related illness.” This crisis is preventable and 39% of Western and Central African people should not be living like this. Life is difficult for the people that do not have clean water. ¨Women and children walk up to three hours a day to get water,¨(Unicef). “Women spend more time collecting water than anything else,” stated by Water Changes Everything. “Women and children also carry up to 40 pounds of water every trip they make to get water,” states Water and Sanitation. The information is important because they do not have a good chance to get a job or education and therefore they live in poverty with no chance of having a productive life outside of their village. There are many global problems about this crisis. “The woman and children collecting the water do not get an education because they spend all day getting the water” (Water Changes Everything). “They still do not have proper sanitation water to drink or clean water,” states the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “On an average year 1.5 million children die a year due to a water related disease,” states Water and Sanitation. This problem is solvable, and we can not allow 1.5 million children to die a year and not get an education. Research must continue in order to solve this
In third-world countries, water and sanitation facilities are often scarce or unreliable. Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to transmission of diseases such as chorea, dirrhoea, hepatitis, typhoid and polio. Each day 2000 children die from diarrhoea caused by contaminated water an inadequate sanitation and hygiene and overall around 842000 people are estimated to die each year. These diseases have the insidious effect of reducing people’s ability to access education and earn income – 272 million school days are lost each year to water-related diseases.
South Sudan has valuable oil and other resources as well as other Sub-Saharan countries, but the water issues causes lack of trade and unrest that spreads across the entirety of Africa and other continents. The issue of water does not exist only in South Sudan but across the world, and the end must begin somewhere, and it might as well be a dramatic example of the benefits of clean water in a place like South Sudan. The issue of accessible and clean water is relevant, because the issue provides issues in trying to pursue development in in third world countries. The development of third world countries, would benefit the entire world from a health and development standpoint. Unclean water causes issues of hunger, diseases, and conflict and
Without a decent plumbing system, most Africans have access to water from the ponds or streams. According to the statement made by WHO in 2004, there is only 16% of citizens in sub-Saharan has access to water through a tap in their house (WHO). It suggests that the household connection of water is insufficient. As a result, African women and young girls have to walk miles to get water every day. Moreover, the wells are not built broadly in Africa since the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry neglects it’s responsible for the management of
Clean drinking water is a scare natural resource for people living in villages in rural eastern Uganda. When clean water is available it reduces mortality rates to water-born and water-related diseases including cholera, diarrhoea and malaria (UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative, 2004). Unfortunately, a safe water supply is not always available to a community.
Urbanization, however, has increased the demand for alternative sources of potable water, which is utilized to supply society’s needs. Water is, in a sense, both artery and vein to the development of urban life (Spieker, 1973). The rate of urbanization in Africa has increased exponentially, at 3.9 percent per year, urban population growth rates in Africa have been and will continue to be the highest in the world (Vairavamoorthy, 2012). A projected increase in the size of the middle class, population and economy in towns and cities might lead to a demand for better governance and better services including more water services (World Bank, 2005).
“ I ask you all so earnestly to open girl’s schools in every village and try to uplift them. If the Conditions of women are raised, then their children will, by their noble actions, glorify the name of the Country. “ —Swami Vivekananda