Submitted by Chris Holmes
This morning at an event at the UN Summit titled, “Addressing the Global Water and Sanitation Challenge: The Key to the MDGs,” USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah discussed the United States’ efforts and renewed attention to ensure water security world-wide. Perhaps no single issue is as important to achieving all of the MDGs as water and sanitation.
Today, one and a half million children die each year from preventable water and sanitation–related diseases. Water scarcity is becoming a growing impediment to food security and economic growth; Floods and droughts continue to kill thousands and displace millions; and there are increasing signs that water is becoming a greater factor in violent conflicts throughout the world.
At this year’s summit, USAID will rededicate itself to building a water-secure future – a future where people have the water they need, where they need it, when they need it. A future where no child dies from a water related disease, where food security and economic growth are not limited by the availability of water resources, and where no one has to fight to secure the water they need for their families.
Water, clean drinking water that is, resolves many issues in rural Africa:
_health conditions (many diseases are directly linked to unclean drinking water)
_productivity issues (so much time is wasted on water collection when it could be invested in money-making activities)
_food supply (with enough water, more crops could be generated to feed more populations)
_gender equality (women and children are the ones usually responsible for collecting water)
_education (children lose time that could be utilized for homework and school attendance or school assignments)
One can see how access to clean drinking water is a vital resource for these populations but charities are only a partial solution, social enterprises providing affordable solutions to the rural communities in Africa are the most efficient answer to this issue.
Because of its sustainability and the direct involvement of the populations themselves, social enterprises encourage the contribution of the consumer by creating a greater sense of accountability and responsibility. The poor doesn’t want to be treated like a child, they want to take an active part in their own development.
Social Entreprise doesn’t depend on continuous donations that sooner or later will end, it is a ongoing operation that sustains itself through profits.
We must encourage private enterprise in Africa and in regions where the poor has many needs that should be attended to.
Thank you
El H. Beye
Performance Consultants
On a recent visit to Jamaica during the period of prolonged drought, I visited the Manchester Parish Library in Mandeville. The importance of water and its necessity for sanitation was brought home to me when I discovered that there was no water to flush the toilet or wash my hands before leaving the public rest room and returning to the book shelves. I saw how easily disease germs could be spread as a result of inadequate availability of this vital commodity.
Now the rainy season is on, the catchment tanks are running over, and flash-flood warnings are frequent. This clearly indicates that the gut problem is not always the lack of rainfall or water resources, but poor management and inadequate water storage facilities such as tanks and reservoirs, both private and public.
Poor cummunities as well as government-run facilities in these developing countries need to be encouraged and empowered to create and manage adequate water storage facilities.