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Addressing the Global Water Crisis

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The statistics concerning the global water crisis are staggering, especially in developing countries.

  1. 1 in 9 people or roughly 783 million individuals globally are unable to obtain safe drinking water.
  2. In developing countries, one-third of all schools, as well as one-third of all health care facilities, lack safe water and adequate sanitation.
  3. According to the World Health Organization, 3,900 children globally die each day as a result of waterborne diseases.
  4. 1.8 million people die every year of diarrhoeal diseases obtained from drinking unclean water.
  5. The illnesses caused by drinking unclean water as well as the many hours a day devoted to collecting this water, take away from and severely decrease the quality of life for entire communities.
  6. According to the United Nations, by itself, Sub-Saharan Africa loses 40 billion hours per year collecting water.

These are just a few of the shocking statistics that highlight the seriousness of the global water crisis. However, by donating and investing in initiatives that are environmentally safe and cost-effective it is possible to turn back the tide of the growing global water crisis.

Students, especially girls, who no longer have to focus time and effort on collecting water, can devote more time to attending school. With the addition of safe and sanitary latrine areas, girls can also stay in school throughout their teenage years following puberty.

With access to water, food security can become a reality in developing countries. Fewer crops will be lost and schools can begin to feed their students through the use of their own gardens, which will slash costs.

Access to clean water also means clean hands which lead to healthier bodies. People can focus on ending the cycle of poverty instead of succumbing to water-related sicknesses.

Clear cut access to clean water can also help alleviate conflicts over 276 transboundary river basins. An improved understanding of proper sanitation can increase access to clean water and significantly reduce pollution through unsanitary practices such as waste dumping into these river basins.

According to The Water Project, access to clean water alone can go a long way towards breaking the cycle of poverty for millions of people. All that is needed is to act upon this knowledge.

– Drusilla Gibbs

Sources: World Water Council, Water, The Water Project
Photo: Occupy For Animals

Risk of Waterborne Disease Climbs in Syria

Risk of Waterborne Disease Climbs with Summer Temperatures in Syria As the Syrian rainfall dwindles to its lowest annual point in July and power outages halt piped water supplies to Aleppo, Syria may be facing an unprecedented rise in waterborne disease, according to a study done by the WHO and UNICEF.

The July power outages in Aleppo are symptomatic of a Syrian public infrastructure in steady decline. Since 2011, Syrian public water systems and health initiatives have been deteriorating through negligence and damage due to the combat efforts of the civil war.

With this drop in facilities has come a spike in waterborne disease, especially in children. In 2013, rates of hepatitis A increased by 219 percent in only five months. A similar increase in typhoid was also noted in the same time period.

2015 has shown little improvement. In the first half of this year alone, Syria registered 105,886 cases of acute diarrhea, many of them in young children. The WHO estimates that this figure will only increase as the arid summer months force more Syrians to turn to contaminated water sources in lieu of dwindling reservoirs.

“We are anticipating a number of public health risks from water-borne diseases, specifically hepatitis, typhoid, cholera and dysentery. Given the scale of population movement both inside Syria and across borders, together with deteriorating environmental health conditions, outbreaks are inevitable,” said Dr. Jaouad Mahjour, the WHO director of the Department for Communicable Diseases.

Before the Arab Spring, Syrian water consumption ranked high for the Middle East, with a per capita consumption of 300 cubic meters, yet this still fell disastrously short of the global water scarcity mark of 1,000 cubic meters per capita. This figure has only decreased as Syria’s civil war shifts into a “water war” in which rebel groups have seized control of some of Syria’s most important water (and water-generated power) sources.

This was the case at Lake Assad in 2014, a reservoir that was used to supply drinking water to five million Syrians. When the Islamist State Group seized control of the Euphrates Dam in al-Tabqa, which uses water levels and current to generate electricity, the rate of water flow from the Euphrates into reservoirs like Lake Assad (where the water can be filtered) was nearly halved. While the Syrian government had previously abandoned the power generating capacity of the dam to ensure consistent water levels at the reservoir, the Islamic State group disregarded this caution and began to operate the damn at unprecedented levels.

“[Lake Assad] is pumping out more than it is receiving,” said Syrian engineer Waleed Zayat to Al-Jazeera. “This is because the electricity generators are working 24 hours a day…normally we should not use more than four or five hours per day. But for the last month and a half they have been using eight at full.”

It is estimated that 15 million Syrians depend on these standing water infrastructures, which are being rapidly depleted by imprudent usage. When water pumping in Deir-ez-sour, a province on the Iraqi border, dropped by 90 percent, many were forcibly turned to the Euphrates river itself to keep from death by dehydration.

Instead, they choose to risk death by bacterial infection. This river now serves a dual purpose as a raw sewage dumping center, and only accessible source of water for the residents of Deir-ez-sour.

The public health risks to drinking water contaminated with untreated sewage are astronomical and often result in the contraction of a number of bacterial and infections including dysentery and typhoid, both of which can come from drinking water contaminated with raw sewage.

With thousands of Syrians crossing borders everyday to escape this, it will not be long before these diseases are no longer a Syrian public health problem, but a regional concern for the Middle East. Cases of measles, tuberculosis and cutaneous leishmaniasis have already been reported ton Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey.

In the face of a budding global health crisis, Dr. Major of WHO is calling for vast restructuring of water systems, filtering efforts and disease detection and prevention techniques. “The situation will deteriorate if prevention and control efforts are not scaled up soon,” warned Dr. Major.

– Emma Betuel

Sources: Reliefweb, BBC, Al Jazeera, UNICEF, Irin News
Photo: BBC

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Surge: Pioneer of Clean Water Around the World

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Surge is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that focuses on providing people with clean and safe drinking water. According to Chicagonow.com, Surge has given around 67,000 people access to clean water in countries such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Cambodia.

In addition, Surge focuses on improving people’s health in countries where fatal waterborne diseases such as cholera are common. In order to fund further projects, the organization has decided to host a nationwide event that focuses on collecting funds for the cause.

In addition, Surge provides other ways people can get involved with clean water initiatives. People as young as eight years old can get involved in Surge’s educational awareness program. According to surgeforwater.org, these educational programs reach up to thousands of people each year. Additionally, the “Just for Kids Initiative partners with local organizations in order to educate and empower youth” involved in the program.

In places such as Bangladesh, Surge has provided new water sanitation systems. In the district of Gazipur, more than half of the households were given access to clean water. Today, more than 56,000 households depend on Surge’s aid.

Additionally, the nonprofit has provided Cambodian people with a new water tank to people living in remote villages near the Mekong river. Due to Surge’s efforts more than 1,000 Cambodian children now have access to clean water.

This year, the Water Falls Gala will raise funds for clean water projects in places such as Haiti and the Dominican Republic. According to the official website, the event will be held at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago’s West Loop.

All the proceeds will work towards building clean water systems in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The projects in these countries will bring clean water to thousands of people.

– Stephanie Olaya

Sources: Surge of Water, Chicago Now