Clean water is essential to life, yet over a billion people lack access
to it and over two million people die annually from diseases related to
unsafe drinking water. In urban areas they collect it from polluted waterways or pay high
prices to buy it from vendors who obtain it from dubious sources. The
water is often dirty and unsafe, but they have no alternative.
You begin to feel thirsty after
losing 1% of bodily fluids and risk death if you lose 10%.1 Demand for
water is increasing rapidly because of population growth,
industrialisation, irrigation for agriculture, urbanisation, and better
living standards. It is estimated that by 2025, two thirds of the
world's population will live in conditions of water shortage, and like
so many other impacts of development, access is unequal.
WaterAid works with some of the poorest people in 15 countries in Africa and Asia. WaterAid strives to improve this situation
through a comprehensive approach which incorporates potable water,
sanitation and hygiene education as the key elements in the reduction
of poverty. WaterAid works in rural, urban and peri-urban settings, on integrated
projects that provide access to safe water (through simple technologies
such as handpumps, spring protections or hand-dug wells), sanitation
(through the construction of household and communal latrines) and
hygiene education (training in key personal and domestic behaviors such
as handwashing at critical times).
A report looking at WaterAid projects in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, and
Tanzania showed impacts on people's lives far beyond health
improvements and reduction in time spent collecting water. With more
time and less disease, people can work more. Impacts included
improvements in household income levels and livelihood security;
increased school attendance; better child care and teacher enrolment;
social and cultural benefits such as reduced stress levels; increased
status and self esteem; better family and community relations, and
increased ability to observe religious rites and customs. Communities
have been able to achieve a better quality of life and escape the
spiral of poverty.
Over the last 50 years, enormous gains have been made in the provision
of clean water and sanitation throughout the developing world. Infant
mortality has been halved and twice as many people have access to safe
drinking water compared to 30 years ago. There are plenty of grounds
for hope, but the problem is extensive and much remains to be done.
Some WaterAid Key Facts and Statistics
· 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world's population.
· 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of the world's population.
· 1.8 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to around 5000 deaths a day.
· 97.5% of the earth's water is saltwater. If the world's water fitted into a bucket, only one teaspoonful would be drinkable.
· At any given time, almost half the population of the developing world is suffering from one or more of the main diseases associated with inadequate provision of water and sanitation.
· The average European uses 200 litres of water every day. North Americans use 400 litres. The average person in the developing world uses 10 litres of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. (Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC))
· Households in rural Africa spend an average of 26% of their time fetching water, and it is generally women who are burdened with the task. 40 billion working hours are spent carrying water each year in Africa. The weight of water that women in Africa and Asia carry on their heads is commonly 20kg, the same as the average airport luggage allowance.
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Crusading for cleaner water for all!
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Take a moment to check out Drugs In Drinking Water
Help spread the word about what you can do as a consumer to make your water cleaner!
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Wateraid in India:
India is a huge and diverse country with a population of more than
one billion people. There are vast divides
between rich and poor with nearly 30% of the population living in
poverty. Population growth is rapid, particularly in urban areas due to
migration from rural villages. There are vast numbers without sanitation and
water. For every 1000 children, 87 die before their fifth birthday,
mostly from preventable diseases like diarrhea.
WaterAid has both rural and urban projects to help increase access
to water and sanitation. In rural projects WaterAid and its partners help people to gain
access to water and sanitation from the Government. Projects
focus on promoting sanitation among the rural poor by creating a demand
for latrines. A series of well received training manuals and
materials developed by WaterAid have also given hygiene promotion a
boost.
The problems in urban areas are more complex. As cities and towns
become more developed, the slum and squatter settlements where the poor
live are being pushed further to the edges of towns and cities
without any legal right to
water and sanitation services. Urban governance,
management of utilities, bankrupt municipalities in small towns, costly
infrastructure and the lack of waste management are all major
challenges that need to be faced.
Wateraid in Pakistan:
Pakistan is one of WaterAid's key urban projects. WaterAid currently works in collaboration with ten local organizations
in Pakistan to provide sanitation facilities to those living in the
sprawling, unplanned slums surrounding the country's major urban
centers - Karachi, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Uch, Lodhran, Multan and
Mingora.
The
first urban program WaterAid supported was the Orangi Pilot Project
(OPP) in Karachi. This is an innovative community-led engineering
project that empowers communities at street level to finance, construct
and manage their own underground sewerage systems.
Wateraid Australia:
Wateraid Australia works to improve the health and quality of life among rural poor communities through integrated
water, sanitation and hygiene education activities, and to advocate for
increased quality and quantity output of the whole rural Water and
Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.
Wateraid Britain:
The British charity WaterAid provides education in water hygiene for
poor people. But before starting to educate the population of a
village, it first makes sure they have a permanent supply of clean
water. This tangible change tends to convince the village women – who
are the main focus of the organisation’s efforts – better than words. A
fundamental element in its approach is to reduce the distance they have
to go to get clean water.
In Britain, householders receive, along
with their water bills, an invitation to support WaterAid’s projects.
The water companies, which were among the organisations that set up the
charity, have every confidence in its work and are happy to let it send
out such an appeal to the 23 million households they supply.
In the projects supported in Tanzania, a
driving force has been what are known as ‘wamma’ teams – made up of
people from WaterAid and the Ministries of Water, Health and Community
Development. These teams convene village meetings about the projects,
help villagers to set up water committees, and employ supervisors and
pump technicians. They also organise education for villagers in water
conservation and hygiene. WaterAid is seeking to provide sustainable development assistance
– assistance which does not simply dry up when the pump breaks down,
but goes on working in the long term. Its strategy includes handing
over full responsibility for projects to villagers
once they have learned how to manage their own water.
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