Clean Water Supply in Africa

Clean water supply in any country is often overlooked. We use water more than almost everything, for every day neccessities to survive. Most times, in our society, people are scared to have just the littlest bit of contamination in their water, but think about the people in Africa. There is a large threat to Africa's lakes, rivers and wetlands due to things like chemical run-off, pesticide use, and more. The largest reason for the unclean water supply is quite obviously,  human activity. In every country there are agencies responsible for certain environmental factors like agriculture and forestry, but surprisingly in most countries there are not agencies for wetlands management. Even if there was a try at creating a cleaner and safer water system, Africa shares their freshwater ecosystems with many nations, so if there is a coordination difficulty with a nation, it will be a tough process to try and create a plan. Women in Africa walk miles and miles, more than once a day just to get a bucket of water, which they will then have to use for the majority of their daily tasks. They use their water for most of the same reasons we do, but, theirs is brown, unsanitary and not very healthy. They don't have a choice, though, they slave over chores and walk in ridiculous temperatures just to get one bucket.

In recent years, clean water supply has become a more frequent and looked at issue, with more plans being made towards creating a better environment for all of Africa. The UN African Renewal is a plan in which the UN has a goal to help Africa create a universal clean water supply.  African leaders have been showing their commitement to achieving safe, clean water through their development of the New Partnership of Africa's Development (NEPAD), a recent blueprint. They have also been giving great support to the Millennium Development Goals ( MGD's ), adopted by the world leaders in the year 2000. The seventh Millennium Development Goal is to cut down, by half, the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation, by the year 2015. So far, the number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa was reduced approximately 52 percent to 44 percent between the years 1990 and 2004. The main target percentage for this goal is 26 percent, which will definitely take a long time to accomplish.

Populations with access to clean water-2004 statistics-Sub-Saharan with the lowest percentage.

The UN Development Programme ( UNDP ), estimates that the recent budget in Sub-Saharan Africa for spending in water and sanitation sectors is around 800 million dollars a year. This budget needs to be increased, and can be increased in the following ways: through cost recovery- charging users for water, and financial mobilization.

UNICEF has many statistics on water supply for several countries of Africa. As I checked Ethiopia, I found that it has a low level of water and sanitation coverage and a low level of hygiene awareness, which creates many health problems. In Ethiopia 80 percent of communicable diseases are the result of poor water and sanitation. In Haiti, some shocking information shows that in large cities and rural areas, the environment is full of filthy water, filthy waste and close to complete absense of waste drainage. In urban areas, out of those who are lucky enough to have access to water, only 10 percent have direct access, while 25.6 percent must have waste pick up services. One of the saddest statistics is that there are only 33 percent of schools that have access to water, and even though they have access it is not safe for drinking. The other 67 percent of schools are left with latrines which are majority unuseable or in poor condition.
Hopefully this information shows how serious water damage is in Africa, and even though the majority of us can't make it over there to help, we can stop polluting our own water as a start. Water is one of the main neccessities we need to live, and we have a pretty great water system compared to other countries, as you now know.

To view more on the issues of water supply in Africa, click here .