By: Grace Daum, Will Healy & Matias Habib
The Effects of Water Inequalities
55%
Projected growth in water demand by 2050.
158
# of gallons of water an American uses every day.
1 in 5
# of developing countries with water shortages by 2050
40
# of billions of hours a year spent collecting water in Africa
5000
# of children who die daily from unclean water
Overview of Water Crisis
Clean water is vital to life. Yet more than a quarter of the world’s population – approximately 2.1 billion people – do not have access to clean water. Only 3% of the earth’s water is fresh water. Vast portions of the planet have little rainfall and few water sources. Complicating this is global warming, which is changing the weather patterns and water distribution. This creates a water crisis, when there is not enough potable water for the whole of a population. Most countries in Africa are in a water crisis, including Chad, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Burkina Faso, with up to 80% of the population lacking access to clean water. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 50 million people use unsafe water.
Hygiene and Diseases
In countries such as India, Nepal, and other African countries sanitation levels are low. A large contributor to water quality is open defecation, which releases a number of different bacteria into where people collect their water. Around 502,000 deaths each year are due to diarrheal diseases that were water-sourced. Diarrhea is also the third largest cause of death in children. In the U.S., poor infrastructure maintenance and improper sanitization can cause many problems. An example of this is Flint, Michigan, where the town's residents had exposure to high levels of lead in their water. By improving personal hygiene, people could lower the risk of getting sick from waterborne diseases. One problem with this though is money. Many impoverished nations may not have the funds for such programs, only compounding their water crises each year.
2.1 billion people, 29% of the world, do not have access to safe drinking water. Over 5 million people die from water-borne diseases.
Effects of water Crisis
Poor water quality affects human health, from the spread of disease to infant mortality. Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, diarrhea, and typhoid. This is because the countries that suffer most from lack of clean water also suffer greatly from a lack of sanitation. Unsafe, open sources of water used by humans and animals are contaminated with sewage and disease.
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A child dies around every 90 seconds from a water-borne disease, and these disease affect more than 1.5 billion people every year.
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Farmers cannot grow crops without water, causing problems with livestock, malnutrition in children, and birth defects.
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When people do get sick, hospitals don't have clean water to properly treat them.
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People in the places suffering from water crises have to spend around 5-6 hours a day collecting water.
Solutions to water crisis
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Charities- donations can go a long way to help in-crisis regions get access to clean water. There are many foundations involved in establishing wells and other sanitation systems that are always in need of funding.
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Innovation- promoting the creation of new technologies relating to water recycling and consumption could greatly contribute to solving these issues as well as make many communities more self-sufficient.
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Improved Irrigation- as around 70 percent of water is used in agriculture, a revised system that uses less water would be very important. It would also allow countries with rampant malnourishment to grow crops easier.
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Government Funding- this is a difficult solution because the places with low percentages of water access often have weak, underfunded government systems. Other countries with more funds to distribute and less of an issue with water need to allocate more funds to in-crisis areas.
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Public Awareness- ultimately the problem will not be solved until individual people's behavior towards water consumption is changed. The public needs to be educated on the issues and made aware of the steps they can take to contribute