Water and Human Security in Africa (original) (raw)
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Improved but not necessarily safe: water access and the Millennium Development Goals
2012
This article examines the consequences of the disparity between the drinking-water target of the Millennium Development Goals and the measure used to report progress. It has recently been announced that the target had been met in 2010. The authors adjust reported figures to reflect that the official measure, use of an 'improved water source', may not always indicate safe water. They find that progress towards the target may have been substantially over-estimated.
Water, Sanitation and Health in Developing Countries: How Far from Sustainable Development?
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, 2011
The availability of water in adequate quantity and quality is imperative for sustainable development. Worldwide, significant imbalance exists with regards to sustainable development particularly from a water and sanitation perspective. Water is a critical component of public health, and failure to supply safe water will place a heavy burden on the entire population. Although the 21 st century has witnessed wealth and advanced development, it has not been realized everywhere. Billions of people are still striving to access the most basic human needs which are food, shelter, safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. The global picture conceals various inequalities particularly with regards to sanitation coverage in rural and urban areas. Currently, water scarcity and in particular water governance is the main challenge which will cause a threat to sustainable development goals. Within the context of water, sanitation and health, sustainable development is a confusing concept primarily when examined from the viewpoint of policy options for developing countries. This perspective paper aims to summarize and critically evaluate evidence of published studies in relation to water, sanitation and health and to identify relevant solutions to reduce public health impacts. Evidently, improving water and sanitation services will result in significant and lasting gains in health and economic development.
Water for Sustainable Development in Africa
The World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2005
Its no accident that the two longest chapters in Agenda 21 deal with rivers and seas. The Earth Summit might well have been called a Water Summit as our planet is 70% water and it is water, or the lack of it, which will cause many problems in the 21st Century. In dry areas like the Middle East, nations threaten to go to war about it. 2. Water is abundant in Africa on a regional scale but is unevenly distributed by nature. Although a few African countries have high annual averages of water per person, many already or soon will face waterstress (2,000 m 3 or less per person annually) or scarcity conditions (1,000 m 3 or less per person annually) where the population cannot be sustained with available water resources (see Table 1). Given current population projections, over 400 million people are expected to be living in at least 17 water-scarce African countries by the year 2010. Their lack of water will severely constrain food production, ecosystem protection and economic development (WWI, 1993, pp. 24-25). 3. Throughout Africa water is also unfairly allocated by man. With recurring droughts and chronic water shortages in many areas the majority of African countries and people pay an increasingly high price for water or the lack of it. The highest price is often paid by the poor majority of people in terms of money to buy small quantities of water, calories expended to fetch water from distant sources, impaired health, diminished livelihoods and even lost lives. Today over 300 million people in Africa still do not have reasonable access to safe water. Even more lack adequate sanitation (see Table 2). 4. Aquatic species, habitats and ecosystems are also at risk. With increasing water demand throughout Africa to support greater agricultural productivity, industrial expansion and urban growth, more water to meet human needs means less for maintaining aquatic ecosystems and the many other species and environmental services they support. 5. Water in Africa is crucial for sustainable national development but is rarely confined to the boundaries of a single country. With over 50 major international water basins in Africa, most water is shared by two or more countries. Most international basins are without any agreements on equitable use or environmental protection. Few have effective institutional arrangements for consultation or cooperation. Procedures for avoiding or resolving international disputes over water are largely lacking. 6. The key water supply and demand issues and challenges to meet human and environmental needs within and among African countries are reflected in Agenda 21. Chapter 18, the main Agenda 21 chapter on water resources, has more text (over 40 pages) and recommendations for national and international action (over 275) than most of the other 37 substantive chapters. Over 20 additional recommendations on water are made in nine other chapters. All of the Agenda 21 recommendations on water are identified and summarized in a separate document for the Experts Group Meeting. Agenda 21: Water for Sustainable Development 7. Part 1 of the following report focuses on the main objectives, targets and priority activities for Africa of the many Agenda 21 recommendations on water resources. It starts with a summary of the overall objective for integrated water management and then briefly presents and examines the seven main programme areas in Chapter 18 of Agenda 21. Cross references are made in each section to relevant recommendations in other Agenda 21 chapters. Each section concludes with a list of key issues and questions for discussion at the Experts Group Meeting. Overall Objective for Integrated Water Management 8. The overall objective stated in Agenda 21 is to make certain that adequate supplies of water of good quality are maintained for the entire population of this planet while preserving the hydrological, biological and chemical functions of ecosystems, adapting human activities within the capacity limits of nature and combating vectors of water-related diseases. Main Programme Areas on Water 9. Chapter 18 in Agenda 21 includes the following seven main programme areas:
Target 7c of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 7c) aimed to halve the population that had no sustainable access to water and basic sanitation before 2015. According to the data collected by the Joint Monitoring Programme in charge of measuring progress towards MDG 7c, 2.6 billion people gained access to safe water and 2.3 billion people to basic sanitation. Despite these optimistic figures, many academics have criticised MDG 7c. We provide an overview of this critique by performing a systematic literature review of 62 studies conducted over the MDG implementation period (2002–2015) and shortly after. Our objective is to contribute to the debate on the operationalisation of the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation (SDG 6). The academic debate on MDG 7c mainly focused on the effectiveness of the indicators for safe water and sanitation and on the political dynamics underlying the selection of these indicators. SDG 6 addresses some of the concerns raised on the indicators for safe water and sanitation but fails to acknowledge the politics of indicator setting. We are proposing additional indicators and reflect on the limitations of using only quantitative indicators to measure progress towards SDG 6.
Nigeria and the MDGs: Tracking Progress in Drinking Water and Sanitation Target
2013
Water and sanitation is among the topmost emerging issues that have local, national and global importance. Water typifies the liquid state of matter and it is one of the most abundant natural resources of the earth; distinctively occupying 75% of the earth surface and 50-90% of the weight of living organisms. The main uses of water include application in various spiritual, domestic, commercial and industrial activities; transportation; agriculture; livelihood; recreation and tourism; energy generation; and fire fighting. Sanitation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and faeces. It can also mean the maintenance of hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection and wastewater disposal. Globally a total of 2.6 billion people lack improved latrine while about 884 million people lack access to improved source of drinking water (WHO and UNICEF, 2010). The availability of safe drinking water and enhanced sanitation in addition to decent hygiene practices has significant effects on health, productivity, income and development. For instance as a result of inadequate sanitation, hygiene and water , an estimated 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases; 200 million people are infected with schistosomiasis, while more than 1 billion people are suffering from intestinal helminthes infection (WHO, 2004). Also, almost 80 million years of "disability free" life is lost annually to unimproved household environments (UNDP/UNCHS/World Bank, 1997). Providing funds in order to meet the United Nation's target on water and sanitation is a huge challenge to municipalities. It was reported that developing countries require about US$ 42 billion and US$ 142 billion to meet the new coverage on water and sanitation respectively (WHO, 2008). Economic losses as a result of poor sanitation in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Peru, and Tanzania is more than US$10 billion per year representing 1.0-6.3% of each country's Gross Domestic Product (World Bank, 2013).