More
than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related
causes; unhealthy water mostly affects infants and young children. This topic is very meaningful to me because
access to healthy water is the most basic human need, it is a necessity for a
healthy life. 780 million people lack access to clean water, mostly in third
world countries (World Health Organization, 2008).
According
to UNICEF, lack of clean water leads to diseases and death of more than 1.6
million young children each year. Lack of separate and decent sanitation
facilities at schools often forces girls to drop out of primary school;
therefore most girls in developing countries are not educated (2003), this
affects the future generations. In
Africa, women have to spend several hours each day finding a clean source and
transporting heavy containers of water. Without clean water, they cannot grow
food, so they cannot stay healthy. Due to the lack of proper health condition,
nutrition and education, children cannot develop in a healthy way.
It is
sad to see that so many people in Africa don't have access to clean water and suffer
from various diseases; the average American uses 176 gallons of water per day
compared to 5 gallons of water the average African family uses each day (www.water.org). Water in third world countries is also much
more expensive that water in developed countries; this also decreases the
access to clean water in poor families.
