Today’s “Solve A World Problem Wednesday” is sponsored by Connor Boyack, who was the top-voted commenter yesterday:
Image courtesy of cboyack, from his recent trip to Zambia.
The statistics regarding global access to clean water are dismal. Here are some of the numbers:
- One in six (1.1 billion) people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water
- Nearly 2 million people die each year due to waterborne-related disease (90% of which are children under the age of 5)
- Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%
- 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters a day
- Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water
Source: 2006 United Nations Human Development Report (http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006 )
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In light of such an alarming (yet largely unpublicized) situation, my question is, what can be done?
August 1, 2007 at 09:49
Ok, so I have no idea. With that in mind…
My younger sisters and I used to “collect water for the poor people” when we were kids. So we’d gather up beer bottles (where we got beer bottles, I am not sure…!), fill them with water, and leave them out on our driveway. I’m sure it was effective.
Can’t you just picture that?!
Anyway, so my first questions are:
1. Why isn’t the water available?
2. Why is water available in the U.S.?
3. What is the cost associated with providing clean water?
4. Is it a resource problem (there is no water in the area?) or is it an infrastructure problem (there are no pipes/water delivery system).
5. Who can provide support & elbow grease for this problem?
6. What are the alternatives to a) no water b) the infrastructure problem c) the method that water is being gathered currently (hours & system of people).
So, that’s where I would start analyzing the problem.
And, even though it’s kind of pathetic that we use as much water flushing toilets as they use to live on, I don’t think that guilt-trip-as-awareness methods will incense people with resources to take action.
It has to be something that is sensible, cost-effective, that becomes personal to people, that we can see the results of.
Also, a 7th question– what are the local obstacles that prevent these people & economies from solving this problem themselves? And an 8th– will this preclude them from a) accepting an “outside solution” and b) being able to perpetuating the solution, so the problem really is solved…?
August 2, 2007 at 12:56
I was listening to a food podcast the other day and came across something interesting (wish I could remember what podcast. Perhaps Jennifer Iannolo’s Food Philosophy?): apparently the notion that free-flowing water is good for drinking is a new world notion. Until the late 1600’s in Europe, one simply didn’t drink water, or at least not straight, it was far too easy to die of it! Wine was common, because the fermentation gave the beverage a safety latch against creepy crawlies.
I think sometimes a world problem is only a world problem because we fail to look at it in an accurate context. Me? I muck up the environment further by drinking bottled!