Over the past years, there have been environmental changes that have impacted the human life in both positive and negative ways. According to WHO , global environmental health issues refer to as the physical, chemical and biological aspects that are external to the human and affects their behaviors related to health, social and cultural(Hayward,2016). Some human-made environmental health issues are human-made, while others are naturally caused and include Water and Sanitation, Air quality, Solid waste management, Noise, Disasters, Food safety, Traffic accidents, Vector-borne disease, Climate and geography, Housing among others. The report majors on food safety as one of the environmental issues, with emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa as it records the highest percentage of the population with inadequate ambient drinking water.
Water is a connector for every aspect of human life, since it compose to almost two third of the body weight. The scarcity of water affects about 1 billion people globally; leading to about one out of five children deaths translating to approximately 1.5 million each year (Khalid & Khan, 2016). Approximately 3.4 million people die as a result of water-related diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis among others. According to the WHO, 40% of the globally stressed people in the world live in the sub-Saharan region even through about 75% of the area has access to the eight major river basins. Most of these people are farmers and pastorals, and therefore. With water scarcity in the area, numerous of people tends to lack enough food leading to under nourishment and hunger deaths (Mubako,Ruddell & Mayer,2013). The organization also projects that the percentage might grow in the near future as a result of the weather forecast that indicates more droughts and the increasing population that exert pressure on the little available natural resources. Therefore, there is imperative need to address the issue with the relevant agencies so as to curb deaths that might result from the water scarcity in the region.
Driving Forces
Environmental Changes
As indicates earlier, about 75% of the region has access to the eight river basins; however, the ecological changes have decreased these resources to inaccessible level. These climatic changes such as drought have led to the evaporation of the water, drying of the water bodies and desertification. With less rainfall, most of the population finds it difficult not only to continue with the occupations such as farming and grazing but also find it difficult to access the clean water to drink leading to malnutrition, diseases, and deaths.
Economic Development
The economic development through the exploitation of the natural resources by the population has also led to the water scarcity in the region. The industrialization and the reclamation of the water bodies have led to the reduction of water sources. Many of African industries tend to use water for the production, and also release the waste materials into the water bodies (Short, 2017). The constant use of the water reduces the water level making it inadequate to the population, while the contamination of the water bodies make the water unfit for the consumption.
Population Growth
The population of Africa tends to grow very fast. Africa commands about 16.64% of the global community, ranking it the second region in the world. The population density is 43 per km2 and is projected to increase to about 57 per km2. The population increase leads to urbanization that eventually leads to a rise in the demand for water in the region exerting more pressure on the available resources. According to the P-S-R model developed by the OECD, the force used tends to affect the state of the resources leading to more problems such as diseases, inadequate harvest among many others (Hai-Ying et al., 2012).
Pressures
The pressure on water availability is caused by the high rate of consumption in the region that results from the vast agricultural activities, and high rate usage of water by the industries in the region. All these tend to take large amount of water from the sources while replenish none hence imbalanced cycle of the water system. The waste release and the emissions from the industries also affect the status of the clean water as the contaminated ones becomes unfit for human consumption.
State
Water-Related Disease
Water-related disease such as waterborne and vector-borne tends to be one of the highest prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa. The waterborne diseases are transmitted through the water contact with the pathogens such as the bacteria, protozoa, parasites, and the virus that results in conditions such as diarrhea, malaria among others (Zaidi, 2016). According to WHO, 4.1% of the global burden of diseases caused by diarrhea results in deaths, and these can be prevented by 88% by the use of the clean water. Numerous of sick people in Africa tend to reduce the working force of the region, leading to reduced production of enough food to sustain the population. Eventually, numerous of people do not only die from the contamination of the water but also disappear from the hunger as a result of the unavailability of food.
Gender Inequality
Gender inequality tends to be on the rising among the sub-Saharan African societies that are facing unsafe drinking water. In most of the household in the region, 62% of water collection is the responsibility of the women and girls, and this result in numerous harmful consequences (Arku, 2010). Most of the water bodies are quite far, leading to a significant amount of energy spent and time on the activity of water collection. The continuous tends results in numerous physical diseases such as back pain, sexual harassment among others.
Increase in Conflict
Water scarcity in the region tends to increase the likelihood of violence. The rise in temperature and decrease in the precipitation tends to destabilize most the societies in the region as the disparity among them increases (Keefer & Bousalis, 2015). Previous research indicates that 1 percent Celsius increase in temperature increases the likelihood of violence by about 4.5% in the region (O’Connor, 2017). During the struggle to access the little amount of water by the large population, most of the women engage into squabbles that end up into fights resulting into injuries even deaths.
Water Management
With the increasing global climatic changes and population that is expected to increase from 7.7 billion to 10.2 billion with 1.3 billion living in Africa, therefore, water accessibility is estimated to reduce. This will lead to enormous loss of lives in the region if the environmental issue is not addressed. Different strategies have been developed by various international agencies such as WHO, FAO, World Water Development Organization, International Decade for Action, H2O Africa Foundation among others to have a sustainable water level across the world (Nkem,Munang & Jallow, 2011). The International Decade for Action developed an initiative on “Water for life” that aimed at increasing the global number of people to access clean water through production PVC pipes to connect various people to the fresh water sources across Africa (Adane et al., 2017). Other initiatives include the Water for African Cities, Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative .Water and Sanitation Program among many others.
Other initiatives include the use of nature-based solutions that aim at preserving the nature as the primary source of water. The nature-based solutions recognize that water is an integral part of the natural process that entails evaporation, precipitation, and the absorption all leading to the loss of water level. Different water management infrastructures have been put into practice to improve water management in these regions, such as environmental engineering (Roberts, 2011). The environmental engineering focuses on preserving the functions of the ecosystem and especially on agriculture, the primary water consumer. The green infrastructure help in reducing the land use pressure as it limits the soil erosion, pollution and water requirements for the growth of the crops. Al these end up having clean water for the society to use for drinking. Initiatives such as “Going Green” have been used to encourage the communities to plant trees that help in catching rainfall in those regions.
Suggestions
Enhancement of Pro-Poor Policies
The available policies governing water bodies in the Sub-Saharan Africa tends not to emphasize on the equality, therefore, there is need to emphasize on the pro-poor policies to enhance the availability of water to the disadvantaged. The region has got enough resources to enable it have adequate water for all the population, however, equality tends to exist leading to some of the exploitation of the resources by the elites through construction of industries, waste disposal and even diverting the flow of the rivers to suit their purposes, leaving the poor with no accessibility to water. These policies need to be implemented in such a way all can benefit equally from the water resources.
Adoption of other Technologies
There are numerous technologies that have not been put in place in sub Saharan Africa to enhance water preservation. These new technologies though have been tried are capable to manage and provide clean water for usage in areas that have limited access to the water bodies. For example” Water-seer” extracts water from the atmosphere. The machine is planted with the lower chamber below the earth surface to provide cool temperature for the condensation of the air that is spinned by the fan blade. The condensed vapor collects as water in the lower chamber and it has capacity of collecting 37 liters of water a day.
As it is well known, most of the African lands contain minerals therefore; the underground water tends to be salty. The drilled borehole waters can be rectified through the use of Graphene filters that help in converting saltwater into freshwater hence increasing the amount of available freshwater in the region.
Conclusion
Water is an essential element of human life, and without it, numerous of people loses their lives. A high percentage of deaths is related to water, such as disease and dehydration, and among the portion, Africa command the more significant part even though it has numerous rivers running across it. The water scarcity in Africa is as a result of multiple reasons such as harsh climatic change reducing the amount of water level, the human activity such as urbanization and de-afforestation leading to a reduction of water catchment areas, and the constant pollution of the existing water bodies. Failure to address the water issue in Africa will lead to an increase in deaths in the near future since the population will exert more pressure on the available resources.
References
Adane, M., Mengistie, B., Medhin, G., Kloos, H., & Mulat, W. (2017). Piped water supply interruptions and acute diarrhea among under-five children in Addis Ababa slums, Ethiopia: A matched case-control study. Plos ONE, 12(7), 1-19. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0181516
Arku, F. S. (2010). Time savings from easy access to clean water: Implications for rural men’s and women’s well-being. Progress In Development Studies, 10(3), 233-246.
Hai-Ying, L., Bartonova, A., Pascal, M., Smolders, R., Skjetne, E., & Dusinska, M. (2012). Approaches to integrated monitoring for environmental health impact assessment. Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source, 11(1), 88-101. doi:10.1186/1476-069X-11-88
Hayward, T. (2016). A Global Right of Water. Midwest Studies In Philosophy, 40(1), 217-233. doi:10.1111/misp.12057
Keefer, N., & Bousalis, R. (2015). How Do You Get Your Water? Structural Violence Pedagogy and Women’s Access to Water. Social Studies, 106(6), 256-263. doi:10.1080/00377996.2015.1072793
Khalid, I., & Khan, M. A. (2016). Water Scarcity- A Major Human Security Challenge to Pakistan. South Asian Studies (1026-678X), 31(2), 143-156.
Mubako, S. T., Ruddell, B. L., & Mayer, A. S. (2013). Relationship between Water Withdrawals and Freshwater Ecosystem Water Scarcity Quantified at Multiple Scales for a Great Lakes Watershed. Journal Of Water Resources Planning & Management, 139(5), 671-681. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000374
Nkem, J. N., Munang, R., & Jallow, B. (2011). Decentralizing Solutions For Rural Water Supply Under Climate Impacts In Sub-Saharan Africa. Environment, 53(2), 14-17. doi:10.1080/00139157.2011.554498
O’Connor, R. (2017). Water Scarcity: Preventing Future Conflicts. Case Western Reserve Journal Of International Law, 49(1/2), 331-349.
Roberts, A. S. (2011). Technology: New Ways for Clean Water. Technology & Engineering Teacher, 71(4), 4-9.
SHORT, C. (2017). Into the Future: Water and wastewater processes: the last (and next) 30 years. TCE: The Chemical Engineer, (916), 29-31.
Zaidi, A. (2016). Global typhoid policy recommendations. International Journal Of Infectious Diseases, 4565-66. doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2016.02.190
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