Water Stress

When it’s so easy for us to turn on a faucet to get a glass of water, it’s hard to comprehend how many people lack access to clean water worldwide. Though improvements have been made globally, 2.2 billion people are still without access to safely managed drinking water. Of those, 884 million people don’t even have clean water they can collect within a 30-minute timeframe.[1]

Contaminated water causes millions of deaths annually. It contributes to 60% of diarrheal deaths worldwide.[2]

Every year, 1.7 billion children under the age of 5 suffer from diarrhea. About 446,000 of them die from the ailment annually.[3]

Meanwhile, 95,000 people die from cholera (while 3 million suffer from the disease), and 129,000 die from typhoid (out of 11 million who become infected).[4]

Millions of people also suffer from tropical diseases that come from unclean water or the lack of hygiene that results from it. Some, like Guinea worm disease, are extremely painful parasitic infections. Others, like trachoma, cause blindness or visual impairment in 10 million people.[5]

Water stress prevents people from practicing proper hygiene, which is so important to prevent disease spread, from parasites to bacterial diseases. About 2.3 billion people lack access to basic facilities, including soap and water, to wash their hands.[6]

Adequate handwashing facilities are disproportionate throughout the world. While households in developed countries may have two or more bathrooms, three-quarters of people in sub-Saharan Africa don’t have anywhere to wash their hands at home. In Central and Southern Asia, 31%, or 620 million people, don’t have adequate handwashing facilities.[7]

When considering how many people lack access to clean water, it’s important to take sanitation into account. Poor sanitation contributes to 60% of deaths from diarrheal diseases and causes plenty of other illnesses.[8]

Approximately 3.6 billion people do not have sanitation that is safely managed. At least 494 million people are forced to defecate openly in the streets or bushes.[9]

Clean water and proper hygiene and sanitation could prevent many diarrheal deaths worldwide, and reduce the global disease burden by 10%.[10]

Contaminated water sources, lack of basic water services and changing weather patterns all contribute to water stress in countries. While the problem is extensive, you can make a difference.


Click here, to read more about this article.

Click here, to read more blogs in Gospel for Asia.Net

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Is the Poverty Cycle?

Image
The question, “What is the poverty cycle, or cycle of poverty?” is one that must be answered to address and end poverty across the globe. Put simply, the term refers to the trend where the vicious effects of poverty and deprivation pass from one generation to the next, with no seeming way out. [1] Someone born into poverty has fewer opportunities than their wealthier peers. They must focus on survival above all, leaving little room for anything else. One illness can wipe out a family’s savings, but the unclean water sources and lack of protection available to them invite sickness. Walking to retrieve water can be time-consuming yet must be a daily priority, and many children must work alongside their parents for the family to afford food. Thus, school is often a far-off dream. Having had few opportunities to acquire skills, the kids grow up to repeat the cycle of poverty with their own children. This story was all too familiar for Nalah. His father worked in the tea fields, trying to e...
Read more

What Do I Need to Know about the Global Poverty Rate?

Image
Statisticians are getting better at measuring the global poverty rate every year. The World Bank is one group working hard to accurately measure it so that the extent of the problem is fully known and so that progress can be measured. [1] Through governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), we can more clearly see the last decade of progress and the most recent effects driving poverty rates. Sub-Saharan Africa has been one area difficult to measure, but new data shows an overall reduction in the percentage of those in poverty. Unfortunately, there is an increase in total number of people living at or below the official poverty rate of $1.90 per day. [2] That doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. With good statistics and a clear view of the problem, countries and organizations can use the proven methods to regain any ground lost. Additionally, valuable lessons have been learned about how to protect the most vulnerable and how to prevent some of the worst effects. GFA World is un...
Read more

Generational Poverty: A Cycle Not Worth Repeating

Image
The cycle of generational poverty can seem impossible to break. Children inherit what their parents teach and show them. a joint report from Ascend: The Aspen Institute and Bernard van Leer Foundation affirms this. “What young children learn from the adults who raise and care for them lays the foundation for future social, emotional, language, and cognitive growth,” the report says. 1 Children raised in a generational poverty mindset often lack the tools they need to succeed or achieve a better life than that of their parents. As adults, these individuals often then raise their children in poverty similar to that of their own childhoods, and the cycle perpetuates. It’s a cycle not worth repeating, yet it does time and time again. For the 736 million people worldwide living below the poverty line, earning $1.90 a day or less, the focus is frequently on mere survival. 2 Children are disproportionately affected by extreme poverty, says UNICEF, as “children who grow up impoverished often...
Read more