Rural Africa Water Project
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The Rural Africa Water Project provides sustainable access to portable water in deprived rural communities across Africa through partnerships with other social groups and participation from beneficiary communities.
ARII under its Centre for Livelihood and Socio-Economic Development has launched the Rural Africa Water Project to provide access to good drinking water for at least two communities in Africa every year. The RAW Project provides the tools, techniques, training and support to ensure that there is continuous provision of safe and easily accessible potable water for poor rural communities.
Everything Begins with Clean Water
Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from water-borne disease. Lack of water and sanitation is the number one cause of school dropout.
Globally, waterborne illnesses are the second leading cause of death for children under 5. Women in Africa spend 40 billion hours just hauling water. Time that could be spent on family, education, and productive work. Safe water is the fundamental first step in human development.
ARII takes collaborative approach to provide children and families with access to safe water and sanitation facilities while promoting safe hygiene practices.
Women and children in Africa have to travel long distances each morning in search of water. The United Nations Organization estimates that Africa loses 40 billion hours per year collecting water, the same as an entire year’s labor in all of France. Imagine having to wake up at 5 am to go fetch the family’s morning water. If your local borehole is dried up, you may need to walk an hour or two to the next one. Women and children will need to do this at least twice a day, thus for most women and children, fetching water dominates the day, pushing aside all other activities including school.
Dirty water undermines children’s education as well as their health. Time spent in carrying water is time missed from school lessons. Apart from that if children do attend school, they are usually tired and exhausted and this adversely affects their concentration levels at school. 443 million school days are lost each year due to water related diseases. Water poverty affects the general well-being of children since it denies them the chance to enjoy a happy childhood.
General Effects of Water Poverty
In many areas of Africa, water borne diseases such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid are on the increase, often caused by raw liquid and solid waste materials flowing directly into rivers and lakes which are then used as water sources.
In developing countries, as much as 80% of illnesses are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions. Half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with people suffering from a water related disease. In recent times, diarrhea has been identified as the leading killer of children in the developing world, claiming 4000 children a day, this is way ahead of more publicized diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.
Through provision of safe potable water, proper sanitation ensured.
- Women can save time which was previously wasted in searching for water.
- Women can engage in economic activities such as handicrafts and farming to help lift their families out of abject poverty.
- Poverty rates of people in these communities has reduced.
- Potable water and good sanitation has reduced the prevalence of water borne diseases and other related health issues.
- General health and well-being of women and children has improved since they no longer have to walk long distances in search of water and carry heavy water-filled containers.
- Attendance in schools has generally increased.
- Enrollment of children into schools in these communities has also increased.
Concentration levels of school children has also witnessed an increase since children no longer come to school tired and exhausted.