Out Of Water.
Water Scarcity.
Created by: Maria Espinoza, Salma Puga, and Nylijah
What is water scarcity?
Water scarcity is the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the demands of water usage within a region.
The most immediately apparent impact of water scarcity in Africa is on the continent's health.
- More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world.
- Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.
- Of the 60 million people added to the world's towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements (i.e. slums) with no sanitation facilities.
- 750 million people lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people.
- More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.
We should care because a lot of the factors that cause water scarcity are broadening and becoming more complex and uncontrollable. This means if we do nothing in terms of preserving and using it wisely, it is only a matter of time that all regions shall begin to experience water crisis and all the repercussions that come with it.
Unsafe Water
Sanitation
Effect of water scarcity.
What caused water scarcity?
1. Nutrients Pollution
Some wastewater, fertilizers and sewage contain high levels of nutrients. If they end up in water bodies, they encourage algae and weed growth in the water. This will make the water undrinkable, and even clog filters. Too much algae will also use up all the oxygen in the water, and other water organisms in the water will die out of oxygen starvation.
2- Ground water pollution
This means when we dig wells and bore holes to get water from underground, it needs to be checked for ground water pollution.
3- Climate change
All over the world, places that used to have lots of rainfall do not have enough again and dry places suddenly are getting colder and wetter. Both cases result in clean water shortage because less rainfall means less water, and excessive rains cause flooding and which brings all sorts of debris and destroy water treatment installations.
4- Population expansion
Just 50 years ago, the total number of people on earth has doubled and continues to grow. This is a result of larger family sizes and access to better health care and lifestyles. This means that use of wholesome water for drinking, cleaning, cooking and sewage has tripled. Humans are a lot more careless in recent time, and we waste more water than ever before. This has placed a lot of pressure on the same amount of water that we have.
5- Urbanization
Cities are growing and expanding more than ever before. Cities also tend to hold more people than towns and villages. This means there an increased need to take care of sewage, cleaning, construction and manufacturing.
What is poverty?
The World Bank Organization describes poverty in this way:
“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time.
Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and the wealthy alike -- a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.”
The Crisis
Across the developing world, millions of women are wasting precious time collecting dirty water, children are dying from preventable diarrheal diseases.
Access to clean water improves...
When students are freed from gathering water, they return to class. With proper and safe latrines, girls stay in school through their teenage years.
Health:
Safe water, clean hands, healthy bodies. Time lost to sickness is reduced and people can get back to the work of lifting themselves out of poverty.
Hunger:
Access to water leads to food security. With less crop loss, hunger is reduced. Schools can feed students with gardens, reducing costs.
Poverty:
Access to water can break the cycle of poverty. The communities we serve are ready to grow. We can't wait to see how they choose to do it.
Solutions:
- Donations to the organizations to help provide clean water and sanitation to those in need. For a small investment, you can fund long-lasting water projects that serve villages and schools.
Wells, dams and rain catchment systems can provide a reliable source of drinking water. Sanitation facilities and hygiene training then help multiply the impact. Communities become far better able to grow themselves out of poverty.
- Spread the news on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc). People prefer to give to people they know.
- Other non-profit organizations are working with local partners to help communities plan, build, and manage safe water supplies and toilets. They use their experience and research to influence decision makers to do more to provide these vital services.
Our Solution:
Show Your Support
1. Put a water-themed cover photo on your social media timeline!
2. Show your Twitter fans that you care, by putting a water-themed cover on your Twitter profile.
3. Write a post on your timeline talking about water scarcity and encourage your friends and family to donate and share the post, more people will see it so more people may want to help.
Everyone knows about ALS because of the ALS ice bucket challenge. Celebrities were spreading it around by dumping buckets of ice water on their head and donating towards a charity. Fans of those celebrities were more likely to also dump water on themselves and give money.