International Year for Sanitation-Community Health Education and School Sanitation (CHESS) Africa Project
by mboneenie | January 1, 2008 (All day) - February 1, 2009 (All day)
The Challenge;
Lack of clean and safe water and adequate sanitation is the world's single largest cause of illness. Two Million people, mostly children die every year from water borne and water related diseases.
Lack of clean and safe water and poor management of human wastes can spread diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, trachoma and tapeworm-many of which can be fatal to people in developing world. Other water -associated diseases such as malaria and filariasis affect vast population worldwide. More than one million people die every year from Malaria alone.
Clean and safe water and adequate sanitation are major factors underlying many of the ten million child death every year. Repeated episodes of water-borne diseases like diarrhoea can push children to the brink of survival, leaving them too weak and malnourished to survive even common childhood illnesses.
Most of these deaths are preventable. It is estimated that almost half of the nearly two million death from diarrhoea every year could be prevented through an understanding of basic hygiene.
Over half of the hospital beds in the developing world are occupied by people suffering from preventable diseases cause by unsafe water and lack of sanitation.
Water scarcity force people to consume contaminated water, leading to water-borne diseases. In 2005, half a billion people lived in countries defined as water -stressed or water -scarce. The figure is expected to increase to 2.4 and 3.4 billion respectively, by 2025, with North Africa and West Asia particulary affected.
About one million people in Africa die from Malaria each year, most of them children under five.
Increased urbanization is placing an enormous strain on existing water and sanitation infrastructure, Urban centers in developing countries have grown rapidly without adequate infrastructure planning, resulting in millions of immigrants who have little access to safe sanitation and water supplies. This puts the entire population at risk, causing serious environmental damage.
Growing numbers of HIV-positive people, who are especially susceptible to disease and infection, depend on clean and safe water for their health and survival.
Location:
London UK
1 Mulgrave Road, Woolwich
London, Greenwich SE18 5TX
United Kingdom
