CAPE TOWN— Water is one of the hardest things to access in the continent of Africa. While interning here at The Borgen Project, I have learned how nonprofit organizations and various scientists are coming up with ways to provide clean water to countries in Africa and Latin America. Despite these efforts, Africa still needs to access around 1 billion dollars to provide its people with potable water. According to various sources, such as the Africa Water Atlas, “Africa faces mounting challenges in providing enough safe water for its growing population, especially for the huge numbers of people migrating to peri-urban areas, where municipal water services are often non-existent.”
Moreover, the 40 percent of Africa’s population that lives in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas are suffering the most. Here, humidity and water reliability are relatively low. The African Water Atlas states, “The uncertainty of water supplies has implications for Africa’s people in terms of food security and public health, seasonal and permanent rural-to-urban migrations, and political instability and conflicts over scarce water resources.”
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the amount of water available to African peoples is so scarce that the amount of water available per person in Africa is “far below the global average and is declining: the continental annual average water availability per person is 4,008 m3/capita per year, well below the global average of 6, 498 m3/capita/year.”
The conditions in some of these regions is particularly worrisome. For instance, South Africa is known to have some of the world’s most contaminated water. South Africa is currently trying to improve the damaging effects caused by acid mine drainage. Acid mine drainage occurs when flood water that reaches cavernous areas previously mined for gold becomes intoxicated with harmful chemicals, and leaks into rivers. Today, around 6,000 mines fall under this category.
To better this disheartening situation, international leaders have begun to advocate for a solution. For example, UNESCO director-general, Irina Bokova noted in her message on World Water Day on March 22 that clean water is fundamental to health and living a quality life in Africa:
“Water is fundamental to life and is the common denominator of all sustainable development challenges. We need water to produce food and we need water to produce energy. Improving access to freshwater is about enabling millions of girls to go to school instead of walking kilometers to fetch water. It is about improving maternal health, curbing child mortality and preserving the environment.”
In addition, a recent World Water Development Report states that people who lack electricity are also are likely to lack clean water. The report also explains that there is an undeniable correlation between water and energy. “Water is required to produce energy, and energy is required to sanitize and convey water.”
Moreover, the Southern African Vision For Water Life and Environment in the 21st century has also advocated for a solution to the lack of access to clean water by stating:
“The peoples of Southern Africa recognize that water is essential to: their own personal and community survival; the production of the food that they eat; the sanitation and conveyance of waste; the generation of the energy that supplies their needs; the commodities that they produce for national consumption and export; and the integrity of the environment and the survival of other living forms with whom they share the world.”
Unfortunately, the water sector in Africa faces a wide financing gap of more than $8.5 million per year.
A member of the United Nations secretary-general’s advisory board on Water and Sanitation, Michel Camdessus, however, has refueled hope. He has mentioned that recent discoveries of water reserves under some of Africa’s deserts raise hopes for quenching African thirst.
Despite this, most still believe that around 40 percent of Africans will not have access to clean water any time soon, most of them living in rural areas. Today, it has been reported that contaminated water affects 750,000 African children under the age of five. Dirty water can “reduce school attendance, especially for girls, cause political instability, and constrain productivity…Africa loses an estimated $28 billion every year through lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation….it is still a source of disease.”
Today, Africa will have to overcome a massive challenge: finding a way to pay $1 billion that would change the standard of living for all.
Sources: Southern Times Africa, Bloomberg
Photo: Sam Reinders