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Rachel Xu

Ms. Markunas

English 9 Block D

7 March 2019

Why Are Waterborne Diseases Important In Africa?

It is universally acknowledged that a human being cannot survive without water, and the

necessity of water is the reason why the search for water is particularly intense in dry regions. It

might be hard to believe, but according to the facts from CDC, which stands for Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, 780 million people do not have access to an improved water

source worldwide, which is about 11% of the whole world’s population(par. 1). Probably it does

not seem like a terrifying number, but this means there is at least one person in every a hundred

people has a high chance of dying from the water one drinks. It has been a serious problem

worldwide and people should be aware of it in order to root it out because this leads to directly

severe consequences that waterborne diseases bring along. As for Africa, the second largest

continent in the world, more humans died from diarrhea than in all armed conflicts since World

War II in the last ten years(Institute Water for Africa e.V., 1). Therefore, it is important to be

aware of the waterborne diseases in Africa, because of the current negative situations and the

significant impacts on individuals and societies, and people should definitely try to do something

to help by knowing what they can do.

Starting with the current situation and the dreadful statistics about this issue. Some of the

most frequent waterborne diseases are Diarrhoea, Malaria, Cholera and etc. Each one of these

diseases has the ability to be pointed out individually and make people write about how serious it
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can be for hundreds of pages. For example, Diarrhoea. It is the state of people’s faces being loose

and watery, which causes the loss of bodily fluids. It kills three-quarters of a million children

every year, more than malaria, AIDS, and measles combined, as Wendee Nicole stated in his

paper(The Threat of Diarrheal Diseases, par. 1). Cholera is another example. According to the

research that CDC had done on Cholera, Cholera still remains a significant cause of illness and

death in many African countries even though it has largely eliminated from industrialized

countries by water and sewage treatment over a century ago(par. 1)​. The percentage of people

who die from reported cholera cases remains higher in Africa than elsewhere(par. 3). This great

gap clearly shows the inefficient distribution of health resources in Africa. Moreover, from

another aspect, the overall environment in Africa is not advanced enough. As claimed by Tim

Sutton, Oxfam’s WASH(stands for Global Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene) interim team leader,

“if it’s too far to walk, people will only collect a very small amount of water; they’ll use it for

drinking and cooking and won’t have enough water to practice good hygiene”​(The Threat of

Diarrheal Diseases, par. 2)​.

These waterborne diseases usually lead to sorrows behind people and their families, and

sometimes even to the entire country. The biggest victim group is the kids. Polluted drinking

water is one of the main reasons for the early death of children since they are often weaker and

easier to contract diseases. According to WASH, an estimated 801,000 children younger than 5

years of age perish from diarrhea each year, mostly in developing countries -- not to mention the

undeveloped countries including Africa which has fewer clean water resources(par. 6). It is a

vicious cycle that as the population grows, it will increase the water consumption which will

eventually make the water shortage get worse. Furthermore, from the perspective of the whole
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country, polluted drinking water in Sub-Sahara-Africa alone causes major losses by a decrease of

working hours and rising expenditures for health costs at a value of annually 28 billion US$,

which is 5% of their economic power. That is more than these countries received in the year

2003 as development aids and debt cancellations combined as well(1). Here is also an immense

unbreakable vicious cycle: the greater the loss of money is, the harder it will be for the African

governments to institute technological and medical support on this issue, because the insufficient

money may be needed for many other places.

Fortunately, there are many things that all human beings are capable to do to prevent this

issue from growing bigger which might even impact the whole world. On the authority of

Institute Water for Africa e.V., the supply of clean water to the world population and the access

to adequate sanitary facilities are some of the largest challenges in the next decades, and clean

water can help to avoid diseases to a great extent: 20% of diarrhea, 50% of deaths by diarrhea,

and about 1.7 m deaths(​1​). The main issue is the unclean water, but it can be broken down to

many small steps that everyone can do to contribute. Actions such as voluntary educations can

benefit the local people a lot since studies consistently show that handwashing with soap is

effective at reducing diarrheal diseases; one systematic review of the literature estimated it

reduces risk by 23 - 40%, while another estimated a 48% reduction(Nicole, The Threat of

Diarrheal Diseases, par. 3). Other things like improvements of drinking-water quality, such as

point-of-use disinfection, would lead to a 45% reduction of diarrhea episodes, as stated by CDC

about global WASH facts(Prevention, par. 3). Also, since the lack of medication in Africa,

additional health care should be happening in Africa. There is a severe lack of safe and

appropriate diagnostic imaging services in large parts of Africa, as reported in the African Health
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Report(122). However, difficulties are expected to be faced. For instance, still from the African

Health Report, there are gaps between needs and appropriate matching to conditions, and there is

very little regulation governing the use of medical devices in Africa(122). In addition, although

some of the habits or treatments may seem fair and effective for most people, they are actually

despite some local people’s religious and cultural beliefs. Using latrines seems normal to many

people, but most African people are actually unwilling to do that. An Oxfam protection officer

explains that “when pregnant mothers go to the latrines, they fear the child will just come out and

fall into the pit”(Getting People to Use Latrines, par. 2). These, and many other cultural beliefs,

can keep people from using modern latrines.

After all, the waterborne diseases in Africa are causing very crucial problems and people

cannot just look at things getting worse and do nothing. All the points made above are meant to

inform the public and to persuade them to do something for the African citizens, by knowing

about all kinds of waterborne diseases and how they are heavily influencing African people’s

life. It is always difficult for people to relate to the issues that they have not experienced, and

people might think that they had already passed the basic living standard, which is to have

enough to eat and wear, and now are transforming into a relatively comfortable life; in many

regions, it is the case. However, it is not enough to only care about the environment and society

around one’s life. There is only one Earth for human beings, and it is necessary to make sure that

everyone is living equally with at least the basic living resources they need. If there are no these

statistics for people to visually imagine what it is like in another side of the world, it is really

hard for them to even know about that there are still some people suffering because of what

might seem like a daily basis for them: water. It really is a tricky problem, and it is also hard for
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people to make behavioral changes, especially when they are against religions or cultures. The

things people need is the de​termination to stand up again after falling down since ​setbacks are

blocking the way the entire time​. It would be a tough process, but the goal is the process of

transition from acute emergency to stabilized emergency, and the way is always long to go.

In conclusion, it is necessary to inform people about the situation that we are in, the huge

potential impacts the severity​ of waterborne diseases might bring us to and advocate the

importance of prioritizing health resources. Thinking about how 4000 children die due to

water-related diseases every day, everyone in the world is genuinely equal and should enjoy

good health care. Thus, it is about time to set the foundation for sustainable water management in

Africa​(Institute Water for Africa e.V., 1)​.

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References

“Cholera - Vibrio Cholerae Infection.” ​Centers for Disease Control and Prevention​, Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, 7 Nov. 2014, ​www.cdc.gov/cholera/africa/index.html​.

“Global WASH Fast Facts | Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene | Healthy Water | CDC.” ​Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention​, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

www.cdc.gov/healthywater/global/wash_statistics.html​.

Kebede, Derege. ​The African Regional Health Report 2014​. World Health Organization, 2014, pp. xi-187,

The African Regional Health Report 2014​,

apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/137377/9789290232612.pdf.

Nicole, Wendee. “The WASH approach: fighting waterborne diseases in emergency situations”

Environmental health perspectives​vol. 123,1 (2015): A6-A15.

“Water and Health.” ​Water Consumption - Institute Water for Africa​, Institute Water for Africa E.V.,

water-for-africa.org/en/health.html​.