CLEAN WATER AND AFRICA | Data.org - Debt AIDS Trade Africa

Clean Water and Africa

10.06

Access to clean water is a basic human right and a necessary precondition to all our human rights. An accessible supply of clean water is essential to improving health, education and overall productivity around the world, yet currently over one billion people lack access to a basic supply of clean water. More than a quarter of these people (311 million) live in sub-Saharan Africa, which means that roughly 45% of Africa’s population lacks access to clean water (UNICEF).

Lack of access to water presents significant gender issues as well. African women spend hours each day, walking up to ten miles, to retrieve the day’s supply of potable water for their households, leaving them with no time to care for their families or participate in any income-generating activities. Lack of access to clean water and sanitation has direct impacts on health, education, and poverty reduction

Health Impact

Water related illnesses affect more people on earth than any disease. The solutions are simple and we know how to provide safe access to clean drinking water—all we lack is a concerted effort to solve the problem.
It is estimated that a child dies every 15 seconds from water-related diseases. This amounts to over 5,700 deaths a day. (WHO/UNICEF)
Unsafe water and poor sanitation causes intestinal worms, cholera, and diarrhea. Diarrhea is the third biggest child killer in Africa after pneumonia and malaria – killing over 700,000 children a year. A baby born in Africa is over 500 times more likely to die from diarrhea than a baby born in a G8 country. (WHO/UNICEF)
Meeting the water supply and sanitation MDG in Africa would save $60m in annual patient treatment costs (WHO).

Education Impact
There is a clear link between access to clean water and girls’ education.

Studies show that children are 12% more likely to attend school if water is available within 15 minutes rather than one hour’s walk. Without an accessible water supply, children (and especially girls) spend so much time collecting water that they do not have time to attend school; they may not enroll at all or they may be frequently absent. When children are suffering from water and sanitation related diseases they are often not well enough to attend school, and absenteeism can rise further (U.N. World Water Development Report).
Girls who are enrolled in schools without latrines often tend to drop out of school, especially as they approach their teenage years. Studies show girls are 11% more likely to attend school when sanitation is available (U.N. World Water Development Report).
Meeting the water supply and sanitation MDG in Africa would lead to a gain of 58.4 million school attendance days due to less diarrheal illness (WHO).

Productivity Impact

Collecting water and carrying it long distances wastes time and energy. In some parts of Africa, women expend as much as 85% of their daily energy intake on getting water (UN Habitat).
Agricultural irrigation is essential to increasing food production and income generation in many arid regions of Africa, yet most small scale farmers do not have access to any irrigation technology.
Meeting the water supply and sanitation MDG in Africa would have a total annual economic benefit of $22b for the continent (WHO). Solutions exist that are affordable, achievable and sustainable
Water supply and sanitation projects have been ranked among the top ten most cost-effective ways to advance global welfare.
A WHO cost-benefit analysis calculated that every $1 invested in water yields an economic return of between $10-12 and the total investment required to provide a clean, safe and reliable public water point in Africa costs between $20-$50 per capita, depending on local climate, topography, and the technology employed (WHO). Common water improvements include:
- Hand dug wells: The most common method for extracting water in developing countries is using hand dug wells, which are lined and covered to prevent pollution. They cost an average of $21 per capita and traditionally serve an average of 15 households. The average length of life is 20 years with minimal maintenance costs (WHO).
- Tubewells/boreholes: In areas with lower water tables, a small diameter tubewell can be built quickly and cheaply using hand powered methods. In areas with hard rock, the tubes must be drilled using engine-powered augers. These are called boreholes. UNICEF estimates the average cost of drilling a 60m deep borehole is $2,800, though costs can vary significantly by location and region. Boreholes serve anywhere from 100-600 people depending on the depth and productivity of the well. Tubewells and boreholes last an average of 20 years with minimal maintenance costs (WHO).
- Standposts, rainwater collection and point-of-use treatment: Other interventions that can be employed include: standposts, which pipe water from a source to a communal faucet that serves an average of 4-6 household and costs an average of $31 per capita; rainwater collection, which uses gutters and storage tanks to capture water from a pre-cleaned roof and costs an average of $49 per capita; and point-of-use treatment (POU), which costs $0.13 per capita and involves adding small drops of solution to a water storage vessel. POU treatment eliminates contamination that commonly occurs between the time water is collected and the time it is consumed. POU treatment is a cost effective way to protect vulnerable populations while progress is made to improve and develop the water supply infrastructure (WHO).

The international community is not fulfil ling its promises

As part of the Millennium Development Goals, wealthy nations committed to halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, but little has been done to reach that goal. At current levels of commitment, the water target will not be achieved until 2050 at the earliest (Commission for Africa).
Reaching the water and sanitation target by 2015 would require spending $30b annually and providing access to clean water for approximately 14 million more people in sub-Saharan Africa each year. Currently, only $14b is currently spent annually (UN Millennium Project).
In 2003, at the G8 summit in Evian, leaders agreed to a G8 Water Action Plan, which they then reiterated in 2005 at the Gleneagles Summit. The plan aims to address major issues in water resource management but sets few concrete targets or commitments for donors and as a result, little has changed since this plan was agreed.
Since 2000, G8 donors have almost doubled aid to water and sanitation in Africa but these increases have come at the expense of other regions in need. Global spending on water has actually decreased by 8% in the same timeframe (U.N. Millennium Project, OECD DAC).