Exposé anglais

EXPOSE ANGLAIS

The drinkable water, which causes fatal disease for children, is one of the principal factors causing malnutrition. 2.6 millions of children die of it every year according to the NGO.

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We interested to the case of Africa where live 80% of people who is private of an access to drinkable water. The duty of carrying drinkable water is a big charge imposed to women. Indeed, 1 African out of 2 has to make 10 km every day to supply in drinkable water. What’s more, today in Africa, 3800 children die each day by the lack of drinkable water.

While Africa is perceived like a continent with drought and shortages, it actually has a pretty high hydraulic potential. Indeed, the water is abundant: the continent has seventeen big rivers and more than a hundred lakes and also big groundwater tables. The precipitations in Africa totalize 20 360 km3 per year but the resource is not well divided over the continent. We can separate two zones: the first where there is not much water: Kenya, Somalia and Niger, and the second where there is a lot of water: Sierra Leone or Gabon.

The other big challenge of the continent is related to the access of populations to drinkable water. The access to water is essential insofar as it allows reaching several objectives:

• Improvement of hygiene and of health of populations
• Development of agricultural production by the extension of the irrigable lands
• Rise of the industrial production.

About the supply in drinkable water to populations, several African countries are confronted to difficulties which are related to physical, demographical, economical and political variables. Even in zones where water is abundant, as in Guinea qualified as “the water tower of Africa”, a great part of the people of the capital city (Conakry) doesn’t have access to drinkable water.

In the scale of the entire sub-Saharan Africa, more than the half of the population (about 300 million people, or 51% of the population) didn’t have access to drinkable water in the early 2000. Even in the countries that have a big amount of drinkable water, the access of populations to water is limited, especially in big towns. In front of this situation, rivers, lakes and temporary ponds are used as water sources. This contributes to the proliferation of disease and constitutes one of the principal factors of death in Africa.

According to the Worlds Health Organization (WHO), 80% of the disease is from hydric source. Every day, 650 people, principally children aged less than five, die of diarrhea in Africa. The annual loss in human lives linked with the consumption of a unhealthy water are estimated to 30 million people.

Conclusion

In summary, the African continent doesn’t really lack hydric resources but rather presents contrasted situations. With the exception of arid and semi-arid zones, Africa has a lot of water. The valorization of this resource has to lean on two things:

• The development of infrastructure
• The arrangement of appropriate institutional measures.

Bibiographie :

http://www.idrc.ca/Documents/ICT4D_article_water_dieng_FR.pdf

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