Clean Water in Sub Saharan Africa

This report discusses the issue of clean water in Sub Saharan Africa, which records the highest percentage of the population with inadequate ambient drinking water. It focuses on the driving forces and pressures behind the issue, and suggests water management strategies and technologies to address it.

Running Head: Clean Water in Sub Saharan Africa
Clean Water in Sub Saharan Africa
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Clean Water in Sub Saharan Africa 2
Introduction
Over the past years, there have been environmental changes that have impacted the
human life in both positive and negative ways. According to WHO , global environmental health
issues refer to as the physical, chemical and biological aspects that are external to the human and
affects their behaviors related to health, social and cultural(Hayward,2016). Some human-made
environmental health issues are human-made, while others are naturally caused and include
Water and Sanitation, Air quality, Solid waste management, Noise, Disasters, Food safety,
Traffic accidents, Vector-borne disease, Climate and geography, Housing among others. The
report majors on food safety as one of the environmental issues, with emphasis on Sub-Saharan
Africa as it records the highest percentage of the population with inadequate ambient drinking
water.
Water is a connector for every aspect of human life, since it compose to almost two third
of the body weight. The scarcity of water affects about 1 billion people globally; leading to about
one out of five children deaths translating to approximately 1.5 million each year (Khalid &
Khan, 2016). Approximately 3.4 million people die as a result of water-related diseases such as
cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis among others. According to the WHO, 40% of the globally
stressed people in the world live in the sub-Saharan region even through about 75% of the area
has access to the eight major river basins. Most of these people are farmers and pastorals, and
therefore. With water scarcity in the area, numerous of people tends to lack enough food leading
to under nourishment and hunger deaths (Mubako,Ruddell & Mayer,2013). The organization
also projects that the percentage might grow in the near future as a result of the weather forecast
that indicates more droughts and the increasing population that exert pressure on the little
available natural resources. Therefore, there is imperative need to address the issue with the
relevant agencies so as to curb deaths that might result from the water scarcity in the region.

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Part A:
Driving Forces
Environmental Changes
As indicates earlier, about 75% of the region has access to the eight river basins;
however, the ecological changes have decreased these resources to inaccessible level. These
climatic changes such as drought have led to the evaporation of the water, drying of the water
bodies and desertification. With less rainfall, most of the population finds it difficult not only to
continue with the occupations such as farming and grazing but also find it difficult to access the
clean water to drink leading to malnutrition, diseases, and deaths.
Economic Development
The economic development through the exploitation of the natural resources by the
population has also led to the water scarcity in the region. The industrialization and the
reclamation of the water bodies have led to the reduction of water sources. Many of African
industries tend to use water for the production, and also release the waste materials into the water
bodies (Short, 2017). The constant use of the water reduces the water level making it inadequate
to the population, while the contamination of the water bodies make the water unfit for the
consumption.
Population Growth
The population of Africa tends to grow very fast. Africa commands about 16.64% of the
global community, ranking it the second region in the world. The population density is 43 per
km2 and is projected to increase to about 57 per km2. The population increase leads to
urbanization that eventually leads to a rise in the demand for water in the region exerting more
pressure on the available resources. According to the P-S-R model developed by the OECD, the
force used tends to affect the state of the resources leading to more problems such as diseases,
inadequate harvest among many others (Hai-Ying et al., 2012).

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Pressures
Consumption
The pressure on water availability is caused by the high rate of consumption in the region
that results from the vast agricultural activities, and high rate usage of water by the industries in
the region. All these tend to take large amount of water from the sources while replenish none
hence imbalanced cycle of the water system. The waste release and the emissions from the
industries also affect the status of the clean water as the contaminated ones becomes unfit for
human consumption.
State
Water-Related Disease
Water-related disease such as waterborne and vector-borne tends to be one of the highest
prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa. The waterborne diseases are transmitted through the water
contact with the pathogens such as the bacteria, protozoa, parasites, and the virus that results in
conditions such as diarrhea, malaria among others (Zaidi, 2016). According to WHO, 4.1% of
the global burden of diseases caused by diarrhea results in deaths, and these can be prevented by
88% by the use of the clean water. Numerous of sick people in Africa tend to reduce the working
force of the region, leading to reduced production of enough food to sustain the population.
Eventually, numerous of people do not only die from the contamination of the water but also
disappear from the hunger as a result of the unavailability of food.
Gender Inequality
Gender inequality tends to be on the rising among the sub-Saharan African societies that
are facing unsafe drinking water. In most of the household in the region, 62% of water collection
is the responsibility of the women and girls, and this result in numerous harmful consequences
(Arku, 2010). Most of the water bodies are quite far, leading to a significant amount of energy
spent and time on the activity of water collection. The continuous tends results in numerous
physical diseases such as back pain, sexual harassment among others.

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Increase in Conflict
Water scarcity in the region tends to increase the likelihood of violence. The rise in
temperature and decrease in the precipitation tends to destabilize most the societies in the region
as the disparity among them increases (Keefer & Bousalis, 2015). Previous research indicates
that 1 percent Celsius increase in temperature increases the likelihood of violence by about 4.5%
in the region (O’Connor, 2017). During the struggle to access the little amount of water by the
large population, most of the women engage into squabbles that end up into fights resulting into
injuries even deaths.
Part B:
Water Management
With the increasing global climatic changes and population that is expected to increase
from 7.7 billion to 10.2 billion with 1.3 billion living in Africa, therefore, water accessibility is
estimated to reduce. This will lead to enormous loss of lives in the region if the environmental
issue is not addressed. Different strategies have been developed by various international agencies
such as WHO, FAO, World Water Development Organization, International Decade for Action,
H2O Africa Foundation among others to have a sustainable water level across the world
(Nkem,Munang & Jallow, 2011). The International Decade for Action developed an initiative on
“Water for life” that aimed at increasing the global number of people to access clean water
through production PVC pipes to connect various people to the fresh water sources across Africa
(Adane et al., 2017). Other initiatives include the Water for African Cities, Lake Victoria
Region Water and Sanitation Initiative .Water and Sanitation Program among many others.
Other initiatives include the use of nature-based solutions that aim at preserving the
nature as the primary source of water. The nature-based solutions recognize that water is an
integral part of the natural process that entails evaporation, precipitation, and the absorption all
leading to the loss of water level. Different water management infrastructures have been put into
practice to improve water management in these regions, such as environmental engineering
(Roberts, 2011). The environmental engineering focuses on preserving the functions of the
ecosystem and especially on agriculture, the primary water consumer. The green infrastructure
help in reducing the land use pressure as it limits the soil erosion, pollution and water

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requirements for the growth of the crops. Al these end up having clean water for the society to
use for drinking. Initiatives such as “Going Green” have been used to encourage the
communities to plant trees that help in catching rainfall in those regions.
Suggestions
Enhancement of Pro-Poor Policies
The available policies governing water bodies in the Sub-Saharan Africa tends not to
emphasize on the equality, therefore, there is need to emphasize on the pro-poor policies to
enhance the availability of water to the disadvantaged. The region has got enough resources to
enable it have adequate water for all the population, however, equality tends to exist leading to
some of the exploitation of the resources by the elites through construction of industries, waste
disposal and even diverting the flow of the rivers to suit their purposes, leaving the poor with no
accessibility to water. These policies need to be implemented in such a way all can benefit
equally from the water resources.
Adoption of other Technologies
There are numerous technologies that have not been put in place in sub Saharan Africa to
enhance water preservation. These new technologies though have been tried are capable to
manage and provide clean water for usage in areas that have limited access to the water bodies.
For example” Water-seer” extracts water from the atmosphere. The machine is planted with the
lower chamber below the earth surface to provide cool temperature for the condensation of the
air that is spinned by the fan blade. The condensed vapor collects as water in the lower chamber
and it has capacity of collecting 37 liters of water a day.
As it is well known, most of the African lands contain minerals therefore; the
underground water tends to be salty. The drilled borehole waters can be rectified through the use
of Graphene filters that help in converting saltwater into freshwater hence increasing the amount
of available freshwater in the region.

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Conclusion
Water is an essential element of human life, and without it, numerous of people loses
their lives. A high percentage of deaths is related to water, such as disease and dehydration, and
among the portion, Africa command the more significant part even though it has numerous rivers
running across it. The water scarcity in Africa is as a result of multiple reasons such as harsh
climatic change reducing the amount of water level, the human activity such as urbanization and
de-afforestation leading to a reduction of water catchment areas, and the constant pollution of the
existing water bodies. Failure to address the water issue in Africa will lead to an increase in
deaths in the near future since the population will exert more pressure on the available resources.

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