Clean Water in Sub Saharan Africa

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.

Clean Water in Sub Saharan Africa 3
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).