The document discusses the lack of access to clean drinking water in Africa and its consequences. It notes that 19 of the 25 nations with the highest percentage of people without access to safe drinking water are in Africa. It describes how many Africans have to use polluted water sources for drinking, bathing, and sanitation, which spreads diseases and causes 700,000 deaths in Africa each year from water-borne illnesses. It calls on people, particularly in America, to help address this crisis through donations to organizations working to provide clean water in Africa.
1. “We shall not defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation and basic health care.” -Kofi Annan, Former United Nations Secretary General
3. Lack of pure water effects people all over the world. However, a staggering 19 of the world's 25 nations with the greatest percentage of people lacking access to safe drinking water lie within the continent of Africa.
4. We, as Americans, are oblivious to alternative ways of life and the majority simply do not care to learn more or do anything to improve the situation. While countless people worldwide continue to struggle to simply find clean water, about 408 billion gallons per day are withdrawn for all uses during the year in America to sustain our selfish lifestyle .
5. We see water the way we get it, in that we simply turn on the faucet and drink the clean water without even thinking about potentially getting a disease from it.
6. On the contrary, the danger is real with 700,000 deaths being caused by contaminated water in Africa each year.
7. Of the total population in Kenya of approximately 39 million, an astounding 16.8 million have no water.
8. The amount of water used by an African in one day is generally less than an American uses in a single five minute shower.
9. Many Africans are forced to draw their water from the polluted and disease laden bodies of water available to them. The same water that contains waste from the factories the same water infected with pesticides and other toxins the same water they use for bathing the same water they use as a restroom.
10. The extreme lack of purified drinking water is causing multiple diseases to spread at an alarming speed and the number of deaths from HIV/AIDS to increase substantially.
11. In some communities, women and children are forced to walk 10 kilometers to access the nearest water.
13. Sadly, Africa's children are most commonly victimized by these diseases and 84% of water-related deaths are in children ages 0-14.
14. Most of the children, especially girls, are missing school because neither their homes nor their schools provide adequate drinking water or facilities for sanitation. The absent pupils' future chances of escaping from their families’ poverty are nearly annihilated.
15. If this vicious cycle continues on its current path, Africa will remain in this dismal state with little hope of revival.
16. These people are crying out for our help… Will we continue to neglect them?
19. Most people hesitate to offer their support thinking what they are capable of contributing will be insignificant; if only they knew that with a donation of just one dollar, clean water can be provided for one African for one whole year.
20. What people hesitate to give is likely the difference between polluted and clean water, between death and life, and between despair and hope.
