Walk the Extra Nile

Water is and always will be the basis of life and the blue arteries of the earth, and yet only this summer did I realise the extent of this. I often visit my family home in Portugal but have always done so with a family member who drives. This year I spent my summer in Portugal alone with no means of transport and a 10-minute walk to the closest shop. In Portugal you still cannot drink from the taps so, every day I would have to walk to the shops to restock the fridge with 5-litre bottles of water. Walking in the heat whilst laden with heavy bottles of water proved to be quite a challenge – so, I cannot even begin to fathom what this must be like to do this every day, walking for much longer only to bring untreated water home. 

Throughout the course of this term, I will address the issues concerning water and food, focusing on the implications the lack of availability of safe water has on development. 

 

How accessible is ‘access to safe water?’

 

According to UNICEF, 1 in 3 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water globally. That is some 2.2 billion people (UNICEF, 2019). This figure mainly constitutes those living in low-income countries in which unsafe water sources account for 6% of deaths. However, as the map below shows, this figure is higher in Africa. In 2017, 14% of deaths in Chad was a result of unsafe water.

 

Figure 1: Share of deaths from unsafe water sources, 2017

Source: IHME, Global Burden of Disease (2019)

Yet, provision of safe water has increased in Africa over the past decade. This figure below shows how the provision of piped water in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, deaths resulting from unsafe water continue to persist in these regions and is especially high in Chad with 101.0 deaths per 100,000 of the population (The World Bank, 2016). Despite availability of water pumps becoming more widespread across the continent, there are several reasons to explain this as will be addressed across the course of this blog such as the need to maintain water pumps – which providers appear to be ignorant of. 

                                                                                                  

Figure 2: Access to piped water in urban areas

Source: World Bank (2016)

However, one reason for the persistence of deaths will be addressed now, and has been touched upon earlier in this post - the time taken to walk to collect water. For me 10-minutes was not long at all however, several hours in some regions in Africa is arduous and, on some occasions, force individuals to rely on contaminated water closer by. Additionally, long queues at water pumps may stand in the way of individuals choosing to ‘walk the extra mile’ to collect treated water. 

 

Figures estimate accessibility to safe water but in fact, these figures may be an underestimate with individuals’ access to safe water subject to constraints – those walking distance, long queues at water pumps and maintenance of water pumps. Thus, safe water may be deemed ‘accessible’ but how ‘accessible’ is this water realistically? 

 

Updated JMP ladders:

 

For this reason, WHO-UNICEF JMP have revised the definitions of access to water which take into consideration the conditions in which safe water is available (WHO, UNICEF, 2017). The updated ladders for drinking water with new rungs and additional criteria are defined and illustrated in the diagram below:

 

•    Safely managed– drinking water from an improved source, out of reach from contamination, and available when needed. 

•      Basic – drinking water from an improved source that does not take longer than a 30-minute round trip to collect.

•      Limited - drinking water from an improved source but time taken to collect water exceeds 30 minutes.

•      Unimproved – contaminated water sources.

                                                                            Figure 3: Venn diagram of WHO-UNICEF JMP access to water definitions

These definitions will be used throughout the course of this blog and will be salient in considering water and development in Africa with relation to food. By food, the focus will be agriculture and irrigation since agriculture is the principal consumer of water in Sub-Saharan Africa and contributes a significant amount to African economies. Agriculture contributes between 4% and 5.3% of GDP however, indirectly, this contribution could be higher – between 14% and 30%.

Therefore, the discussion of water and food and its implications on development requires considerable consideration in our ever-changing world with obvious challenges such as, the war on climate change, increasingly threatening this relationship.