by Edgars Skvariks
 |
| Photo by Edgars Skvariks. |
In some parts of the world, clean and accessible water is a precious treasure that not all can afford. In Sri Lanka some families have to spend one-third of their monthly income to buy 100 litres of purified water. It is estimated that each day, an average of 5,000 children die due to bad water. But the good news is that there is sufficient fresh water on the planet to achieve goal – clean and accessible drinking water for all.
Just one week before the recent celebration of World Water Day on 22 March, the EU, the biggest aid donor in the world, announced that the global goal to increase the number of people with access to drinking water has been achieved ahead of time. MDG’s 7th goal to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water has been reached five years before the deadline of 2015. It means that at the end of 2010, 89% of the world’s population, or 6.1 billion people, used improved drinking water sources, passing the threshold of 88% that was set up in 2000 as an MDG target.
Water has a strong link with other MDG goals, such as sustainable development and eradicating poverty, sustaining agriculture, energy and even education sectors. However, around 780 million people still do not have access to clean drinking water, 330 million of these live in sub-Saharan Africa.
 |
| Photo by Edgars Skvariks. |
Projects that are funded by European Commission, EU member states, NGO’s and embassies are highly important in parts of Africa. In Kenya alone, projects by Cordaid and French Embassy have allowed access to clean drinking water for thousands of people. Just six years ago Manyatta’s elders agreed that the village would not be sustainable if water was to be transported to families by trucks from dozens of kilometers away. It was too environmentally and financially ineffective. Together with sponsors and partners, Manyatta’s elders decided to dig wells and install pumps, which are powered by solar panels. Now they are thinking of installing pipe systems around whole village and even beyond. They are hoping to help other close-by villages with cheap and environmental friendly water supplies.
But how many people have gained from projects like these? In which parts of the world there still is a need for clean water in 2012? These two infographics have answers for our questions:
No comments:
Post a Comment