Why care about water?
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to ensure access to water and sanitation for all by 2030. Clean water for drinking and domestic use has been a long-term challenge in developing countries mainly due to lack of sufficient material to make available water safe for domestic use, and partly due to the dry settings of some of these countries where fresh water sources are scarce.
Apparently, 71% of the total earth surface is covered with water, a reality the UN, through its SDG 6, wants to make the most of. Of course not all of this water is clean enough for consumption and general domestic use – as only 2.5% of it is fresh – but then, according to a new Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, there is enough fresh water, if well exploited, to comfortably sustain every living creature on earth.
The report however issues a warning that the situation might worsen due to overconsumption, and that by 2050, one in four people is likely to live in a geographical location affected by recurring or chronic shortage of fresh water.
The most immediately apparent impact of water scarcity in Africa is on the continent’s health. Waterborne diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery and diarrhea, are common because people are forced to drink from unreliable sources of clean water. Water scarcity causes many people to store water in their houses, which increases the risk of household water contamination and incidents of malaria and dengue fever spread by mosquitoes.
Women and children are especially burdened with sourcing for and collecting water for their households. Carrying the typical jerrycan, which can weigh over 40 pounds when full, over long distances every day has health consequences such as permanent skeletal damage, as well as decresed mental and educational abilities due to the effects of stress on decision-making and memory skills.
The lack of clean water leaves many communities in deep poverty. The so-called “water poverty trap” was developed by economists specifically observing sub-Saharan Africa and refers to a cycle of financial poverty, low agricultural production, and increasing environmental degradation. Within this poverty trap, people are subjected to low incomes, high fixed costs of water supply facilities, and lack of credit for water investments, which results in a low level of investment in water and land resources, lack of investment in profit-generating activities, resource degradation, and chronic poverty.
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