Nairobi, Kenya, March 23 (IPS) – Joan Waweru was among the villagers who regularly walked to the river to get water when they discovered a dead body of a neighbour, believed to have died. committed suicide by drowning in the Kamiti River.
She was thirteen years old and recalls that even after the traumatic incident, the village and many other villages along the Kamiti River, which runs alongside coffee plantations in Kiambu County, Central Kenya, continued to rely on into the river as their main source of water supply. all domestic purposes.
Ten years on, she told IPS that the river is still the main source of water for her family and many other households in Kiaibabu village.
“My mother still walks about three kilometers across the river and back, once in the morning and once in the evening. Thus, a total of six kilometers a day she walks to collect 60 liters of water. She carries a bucket with her. 20 liters. on the back and two 5-liter containers on each hand,” she said.
“The Maing’oroti River is about a kilometer from our house, but over the years it becomes a small stream that takes a long time to fill a 20-litre container.”
United Nations estimates show that like Waweru’s mother, the average woman in rural Africa walks 6 kilometers a day to collect 40 liters of water. Kenya is classified as a water-scarce country because only about 56% of the population has access to clean water.
As the global community marks World Water Day on March 22 with the theme ‘Groundwater: making the invisible’, UN research predicts water scarcity in Africa will could reach dangerously high levels by 2025.
With one in three people in Africa facing water scarcity, access to clean, affordable and safe water is not yet widespread across the continent.
On average, people in sub-Saharan Africa travel 30 minutes a day to access water. According to United Nations estimates, sub-Saharan Africa loses 40 billion hours of water collection each year.
In the absence of clean and easily accessible water, research shows that families and communities, especially in rural Africa and urban informal settlements, will remain incarcerated. in poverty for generations.
In August 2021, UNICEF revealed that “nearly nine out of 10 children in North Africa live in areas of high or extremely high water stress with serious health, nutritional, developmental consequences their future perceptions and livelihoods.”
Against this backdrop, the World Health Organization says an economic return of $3 to $34 can be achieved for every dollar invested in water sanitation.
According to estimates by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the capital expenditure required to ensure safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for all people in sub-Saharan Africa, is estimated by the Institute of Finance. World Resources (WRI), is US$35 billion per year.
Natural resource experts like Simon Peter Njuguna from the Kenya Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation say ensuring safe drinking water for all requires the exploitation, protection and sustainable use of resources. Groundwater.
Groundwater is vital to human survival and adaptation to climate change, he said, because it holds large amounts of water and supplies streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and oceans.
Home to 677 lakes, Njuguna told IPS that Africa has the largest volume of unfrozen water, and two-thirds of sub-Saharan Africa relies on surface water from lakes, rivers, wetlands and even Ocean.
Despite large amounts of surface water, WRI research shows 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to basic drinking water and African countries face some of the highest water risks. In the world.
Water scarcity in Africa is largely due to a lack of investment in water infrastructure such as pipelines to bring water closer to people, Njuguna told IPS.
In Kampala and Lagos, for example, WRI estimates show that only 15% of city residents have access to tap water.
“Water scarcity is also a consequence of changing weather patterns including unpredictable rainfall, low rainfall and rising temperatures,” he said.
Nairobi-based food safety and security expert Evans Kori told IPS that water drives Africa’s GDP and is at the heart of food security.
WRI estimates show that for 90% of the rural population in sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture is the main source of income. Water stress from changing weather patterns caused doom for the region as more than 95% of farming in sub-Saharan Africa depends on rainfall.
Kori says that water is a key and important element of agricultural production and emphasizes that escalating water insecurity is also a health and nutrition problem as well as a development problem.
“Serious investment is needed in water-related infrastructure to ensure that all, and beyond, the most vulnerable households have access to clean water. For example, in Kenya , although rivers are increasingly becoming crime scenes where murdered people are dumped, for many rural households, rivers are the only option,” he said.
He refers to the Yala River which flows from the Rift Valley area and flows about 219 km into Lake Victoria in Kisumu County.
In January 2022, more than 20 bodies in various states of decay were retrieved from the Yala River after locals saw bodies floating in the water.
“Yala is not an isolated incident. For example, in June 2021, more than 15 bodies were found in rivers in Murang’a County, and for many locals, these rivers are the main water supply. Urgent intervention is required as it is a health disaster,” commented Kori.
Although surface water is considered unfit for human consumption unless it is pre-filtered and disinfected, safety is not a priority for millions of poor and vulnerable households across the continent. Africa territory.
Report of the United Nations Office IPS
By @IPSNewsUNBureau
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