Why is Africa so Thirsty?
By Suraj Prasai
Picture Courtesy: Youtube.com
Africa with numerous lakes and rivers can be said as a continent rich in its water resources yet the WHO says over 40 % of the African's population still do not have access to safe water. Why is it so?
The picture clearly unveils the sad truth about the condition, the challenges that the African people are facing. Most of the provinces in Africa, like Miassa has a size roughly that of England, a million of people live there among which most are farmers but most of them are illiterate, infrastructure barely exist there. It is a really sad truth that more people have mobile phones rather than a toilet. According to WHO, about 9% of child deaths globally are due to diarrhea and 88% of these directly relate to a lack of safe water and sanitation.
This whole problem of lack of safe drinking water in Africa has been caused by two factors: corruption and inefficiency. Money that should have been used for water projects is often diverted to the accounts of greedy leaders. Water systems built in early 1970 still exist and the yearly government budget divided for construction ends up in someone's pocket.
I think the problem of mismanagement of government is too much. One of the options to improve its condition could be privatization. African governments should build partnerships with the private sector to make water available for the majority of the populace at an affordable rate.
We living in Nepal may see this pic and feel a little pity and then ignore it. But what will be our future? It is unpredictable. There is also corruption in Nepal; there is also bad management, so who can tell if Nepal won't end up like that. The main concern of ours is not to solve the water problem in Africa, there are still capable people pursuing it, but rather on how to prevent our country from degrading, how to end corruption.