Introductory blog



Access to clean and safe water should be a simple right that everyone has. In the western world we go about are daily life enjoying the benefits of clean water which can be accessed very easily from taps and not think about the fact that others in the world would consider this simple task of filling a glass of clean water direct from their home a luxury. In Africa this necessity of clean water isn't as simple as just opening a tap, many families have to walk long distances in the hope of securing safe water. 

The act of going to the toilet is taken for granted in the western world. In Africa most people don't have access to a clean toilet, for billions of people they are defecating 'daily in plastic bags, buckets, agricultural fields and public areas' Bartram et al., (2005).

 Heath problems due to poor water supply and sanitation is a significant problem which causes widespread poor health and illness across Africa Tumwine, J.K. et al., (2002). 
There are still over 2.4 billion people who have poor sanitation facilities and over 946 million people who are still practicing open defecation. (http://www.un.org). Water aid has estimated that still 844 million people cannot access clean water and 289,000 children die every year from dirty water which causes diarrhoea diseases (wateraid). 

 The weekly Blog. 

 I aim every week to blog about my chosen topic of water and sanitation, delving deeper into these headline statistics, developing this topic over the coming weeks. I hope you will enjoy my blog.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

World Toilet day - What is it ?

Image
This Sunday the 19th is world toilet day, I thought it would be a great idea create a blog on what world toilet day is all about. What is it about ?  World Toilet day has been going since 2001 and created the World Toilet Organisation, by 2013 it was finally recognised as a official UN day in 2013.  It hopes to increase awareness about the problems that are being faced and raise more funding to improve sanitation. The subject has always been a topic that no one really liked to talk about and this day helps break down those barriers and get people involved  It all about inspiring action to try and help solve the global sanitation problem and to help achieve Goal 6 of the Sustainable development goal, which is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, so the goal is that everyone should have a safe toilet by 2030 and untreated wastewater should be halved. Every year there is a different theme. This year it follows on the topic of wastewater fr
Read more

Cholera - Is it still a major issue for Africa ?

Image
What is Cholera  "It is an acute, diarrhoea illness caused by infection of the intestine with the toxigenic bacterium Vibrio Cholera  serogroup" Gaffga H N, (2007) .  It can cause death if not treated within hours. Britain and the battle with Cholera  Cholera first occurred in Britain in 1831, there were 4 major outbreaks in the next 30 years. The second outbreak in 1848 cost the lives of 53 000 people. There was no cure and people died in less then 12 hours. There were over 700 works published in the uk to try and answer what caused this disease. The general theory at the time was that it was spread through the air due to rotting animals and sewage.  John snow did not believe this, when the problem in soho near to where he lived he began to investigate. Snow S (2002 ) Instead of reading more text about Snows battle with finding the answer that caused the cholera outbreak in soho london I believe a short video clip will be more interesting. Is Cholera a major i
Read more

Diarrhoea - life or death ?

Image
This blog will explore why diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation practices has such a large impact on communities in Africa. I am sure nearly everyone at some point either from eating bad food or form another reason has experienced diarrhoea. This for many people it is not regarded as a something that will end up killing you.  In Africa as this blog will explain  diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation and lack of toilets is a major life or death issue that cannot be ignored as harmless. The amount of deaths caused by diarrhoea in 2012 was the third largest killer, 644000 people in sub saharan Africa lost there lives. The factors that contribute are 1) Water contaminated faeces due to lack of facilities which can lead to infections caused by bacteria present such as Rotavirus and escherichia coli. 2) Poor personal hygiene 3) Food which are eaten or stored in dirty conditions  4) lack of education. Figure 1 Diarrhoeal disease Diarrhoea   is one of the three biggest facto
Read more