Water as the saying goes, is life and he who gives water, gives life. Clean water is therefore the link to health, economic and agricultural prosperity. Perhaps this is why the former UN Sec. Gen. Mr. kofi Annan addressed water issue by making his famous statement on world water day in 2001: “access to safe water is a fundamental human need, and therefore a basic human right”. Yet even today, clean water is a luxury that remains out of the reach of many (especially in rural areas of the developing worlds).
According to World Bank, the percentage of the population in developing countries with affordable and adequate access to safe drinking water has remained virtually unchanged over decades. The UN also tells us that everyday; million of adults (largely women) spend several hours gathering and transporting water for cooking and drinking.
In some cases water may seem available but never portable! Sanitation will be another extremely serious problem coupled with poverty. About 2.6 billion or 42% of the world’s population lack access to basic sanitation and the impact is staggering. Every week, an estimated 42,000 die from water related diseases to low quality drinking water or lack of sanitation. Almost all of them from the developing world.
Beyond the staggering loss of life, lack of clean water left sectors of the world’s population in a perpetual state of illness which in turn cripples efforts to enhance productivity in form of agriculture, economy and quality of life at large.
In Africa precisely where 25% of the population faces chronic water stress, yet over half of the water used for agriculture never reaches the crops. It’s lost to leakage and evaporation, severely crippling crop yields if not shared with animals. Interestingly, most developing countries in the world are not water- deficient; they are rather infrastructure and or management deficient.
WATER SCARCITY & SOLUTION
Portable water, it’s impacts and crisis so defined and identified, a permanent working solution should arrest the situation if lives, environment and the economy are to be saved. To do these, the following suggestions/ideas should then be considered:
1. As part of the realization of its Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the UN must foster a positive relationship with governments in the African rural areas.
2. Governments to adopt and implement policies by establishing projects on safe drinking water and waging sanitary campaigns especially in rural areas.
3. NGOS in relevant areas should collaborate and rub minds directly with the concerned communities through mobilization, knowledge and information dissemination as far as water related issues are concerned.
4. Government at rural levels to faster a very strong relationship with different NGOs as ARC, H20 AFRICA, WEDC, DFID, WELL, ODA, etc, as upper hands- for helping hands to be lent.
5. Companies to donate water treatment equipments to rural dwellers.
6. Research works on anything water and agriculture be frequently carried out by institutes as part of their contributions to developing worlds and rural areas.
7. Conference and communal meetings on water pertinent issues should be regularly held with a view to provide safe water to rural dwellers.
8. Study scholarships be awarded to some community members on water issues so as to further or gain professional expertise in handling water for life and economy.
9. Oil companies are to give attractive compensations to countries whose environments are polluted by their actions
