Friday, April 14, 2017

Water Problems

What’s the most precious thing in the world which unfortunately we take for granted and realise it true value when it is impaired? Good health, of course. Water, sanitation and hygiene programmes are critical for good health, education and improved livelihoods.

Some 663 million people in the world are without an ‘improved’ source of water and millions more are drinking water which may be contaminated after collection; nearly 2.4 billion people in the world are without access to decent sanitation, and the resulting health crises kill 315,000 young children each year. Nnew aid commitments from donors for water and sanitation have fallen by 21% since 2012, from US$ 10.4 billion to US$ 8.2 billion in 2015. Also of major concern is the continuing ineffective targeting of aid. GLAAS reported one country in Europe – Ukraine — received the equivalent of more than half of the aid commitment for water and sanitation to all of Sub-Saharan Africa in 2015.

• Sub-Saharan Africa is home to half of the world’s people living without access to clean water, yet they received only US$1.7 billion, or 20% of all water and sanitation aid, in 2015. This is down from 38% in 2012.
• Some 85% of the global population without access to improved sanitation or drinking-water from an improved source live in three regions: Central and Southern Asia, East and South-eastern Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. However, aid commitments to these three regions were only 48% of global overseas development aid for water and sanitation in 2015.
• Non-governmental projects and funding are greater than government spending on water and sanitation in many countries, demonstrating the critical need for continued international aid, as well as efforts to create greater domestic revenues and stronger government systems.
• Sanitation spending is still half that of spending on water, despite there being 2.4 billion people – or one in three of the world’s population – without access.

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