The Water Problem in Africa: Research document

Water Scarcity in Africa

• 5,000 children die each day in Africa due to dehydration
• Approximately one child dies every 17 seconds
• Of all the renewable water in Africa, only 4% is used each year
• More than half of Africans lack access to fresh water
• An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the typical person living in a developing country’s slum uses in a whole day.
• 1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world’s population. In Africa, two out of five people lack clean water.
• The average North American uses 158.5 gallons of water a day. The average person in the developing world uses 2.6 – 5.2 gallons a day for drinking, washing and cooking.
• The average weight of water women in Africa carry on their heads is 50 pounds, the same as the average airport checked luggage allowance.
• Every year there are 4 billion cases of diarrhea as a direct result of drinking contaminated water – resulting in 2.2 million deaths each year. This is equivalent to 20 jumbo jets crashing every day.
• 98 percent of water-related deaths occur in the developing world
• 1.4 million children die every year from diarrhea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. That’s 4,000 child deaths a day or one child every 20 seconds.
• About 2 in 3 people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 per day, with 1 in 3 living on less than $1.
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
• 84 percent of water related deaths are in children ages 0-14.
• 90 percent of wastewater in developing countries is discharged into rivers and streams without any treatment.
• There are 1.6 million deaths per year attributed to dirty water and poor sanitation
• In the past ten years, diarrhea related to unsanitary water has killed more children than all the people lost to armed conflict since WWII.
• At any one time, it is estimated that half the world's hospital beds are occupied with patients suffering from waterborne diseases.
• The average distance that women in developing countries walk to collect water per day is four miles and the average weight that women carry on their heads is approximately 44 pounds.
• Over 40 billion work hours are lost each year in Africa to the need to fetch drinking water.