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Africa: Water scarcity

Event focuses on initiatives to deal with global issues

At the World Water Day event, the director general of the World Health Organization, Dr Margaret Chan, said that the global scarcity of water had already affected four–out–of–every–ten people, with serious health consequences as a result, both from the lack of water itself and from food borne or water borne diseases.

The annual event was held under the theme, ‘Coping with Water Scarcity’, to highlight the need for more integration and co–operation to ensure efficient management of water resources, at local and international levels.
Dr Chan urged everyone to take responsibility by conserving, recycling and protecting water more efficiently.

This approach has been taken up in South Africa where the Minister of Water and Forestry Affairs, Lindiwe Hendricks, said that water is a key factor in the growth of the country’s economy and in the alleviation of poverty. For this reason, she thinks that everyone in South Africa needs to adopt a strategic change in the use and conservation of water resources to ensure some water for all.

The South African view is backed up further by Dr Chan, who points out that more than 1.6 million people, mostly children in developing countries, die every year because they do not have access to safe water and sanitation. But much of this illness and death could be prevented by the use of knowledge that has existed for many years, she said.

For further information visit the All Africa website at: http://allafrica.com.

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