What do the 700 million people who watched the world cup in 2010 have to do with global poverty? 700 million people is the number of people who survive on less than a dollar a day, which is 10 percent of the world’s population. A shocking 80 percent of the world’s population survives on less than 10 dollars a day. That is almost 6 billion people living in poverty worldwide.

There are a little over two billion children living in the world currently and half of those children live in extreme poverty every day. According to UNICEF, 22,000 of those children die each year, which is roughly the same number of college students attending at a state university in the United States.

The children living in poverty stricken areas do not have access to proper education. The number of school days missed by these children are over 433 million days of absence. Those days not attended could have been utilized to provide a better life for themselves and their families, but because of their circumstances they are ensnared in that world. Children need access to health resources, clean water and sanitation. Unfortunately, almost one billion children do not receive access to those essentials.

Another major problem that touches nearly half of the world’s population is access to water. Over one billion people in developing countries to not have access to clean water and one in three of those people live on less than one dollar a day. The average toilet flush usage is about three liters of water, which is more than the ordinary quantity of access to water in developing countries. This issue causes problems with human development in these developing nations and causes daily life to continue to be a battle. Nearly half of those populations are suffering from health problems linked to the lack of sanitation and fresh water.

In developing countries the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow each day. This limits areas in poverty, particularly rural, isolated areas to accept limitations to opportunities and resources. The progress that has been formed in developing nations is at times threatened by climate change, famine and economic changes making growth in areas of poverty more difficult. The access to clean water, wellness services and education remains difficult to obtain, causing movement between the class systems stagnant. One answer to the issues of worldwide poverty and climate change is the implementation of the proper education for small marginal farming techniques like irrigation and crop rotation. Food security in the growing nations is a number one goal to continue to reduce worldwide poverty.

– Rachel Cannon

Sources: Global Issues, World Bank
Photo: PKH