* 1.1 billion people in the world don't have access to safe water.
In the Kunar Province of Eastern Afghanistan, poor access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation is a problem that consumes the community.
Preventable diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery and pneumonia kill about 600 Afghan children under the age of 5 every day.
But this problem is not unusual. More than a billion people around the world don’t have access to safe water - and more than 2 billion people currently go without adequate sanitation facilities. To say they’re thirsty is a gross understatement. In fact, in developing nations the water and sanitation crisis is the leading cause of disease and death.
It doesn’t need to be this way. There is enough water in the world for everyone. But there are geographic barriers because the world’s population is not conveniently scattered along freshwater sources.
That said, technology exists to ensure almost everyone can have access to safe water. The main obstacle to implementing this technology is usually simply a matter of funds. Enough money spent on water and sanitation could solve the world water problem for good.
The following article comes to you from the humanitarian news and analysis service, IRIN. The situation in Afghanistan is just one example of a global problem. View story.
ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM
Providing safe water and sanitation is about more than just improved health – it has an economic impact too. The lack of safe water close to people's homes affects their time, livelihoods and quality of life – when you have to search for water and walk kilometres to collect it, you have less time in your day for school or work. Give people back that time and you give them more chances in life.
Many humanitarian organisations are taking the first step towards sharing the world’s freshwater by providing the basics – such as wells, watertanks, boreholes and pumps. Sanitation projects, such as the construction of latrines, are also a priority to improve hygiene and protect existing and newly accessed water supplies.
Water and sanitation expert Murray Boardman of World Vision New Zealand makes it clear that non-government organisations acknowledge the vital importance of safe water.
“Water is so fundamental to life in society that it can be considered to be a pre-requisite for development for any society,” he says.
“The implications of unsafe water and poor sanitation are serious and far-reaching, but it’s a problem that can be solved. The technology exists to access water even in really dry places and we know how to do it. Fixing the issue really comes down to a matter of money and the will to do it.”
World Vision estimates that for a village of approximately 250 people, just $30 per person is enough to supply someone in, say, rural Africa with clean water… for their lifetime.
Just two of countless World Vision water projects currently under way can be found in the Budekwa and Bukene Area Development Programmes in Tanzania. By putting in a number of water systems over the next ten years – mainly shallow wells – more than 45,000 people will be able to have dependable access to safe water. World Vision trains people in the community to maintain the facilities, so the wells and pumps can keep providing the precious resource long after World Vision has moved on.
World Vision has already seen communities transformed by this kind of work. The impact of enough safe water is truly life changing.
Internationally the organisation works with communities, local governments and other NGOs to implement lasting water and sanitation solutions in countries around the world – including Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: Poor sanitation, bad toilets cause deaths, misery
Hear a US radio report about the water shortage in India
Water issues fact sheet
Some more stats and facts
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