The Economic Fallout from the Water Crisis
When people are faced with water scarcity, generally it means they are also faced with food scarcity. In addition stark economic implications for those directly involved as well as for the global community. It is estimated $260 billion is lost globally each year due to lack of basic water and sanitation. Additionally the World Bank estimates by 2050, “water scarcity in some regions could impact GDP growth by up to 11.5%”.
Agriculture is one of the biggest users of water, and when there is a shortage of water from both a growing demand as well as supply due to droughts and flooding; people cannot maintain their crops and food sources dry up. In Sub-Saharan Africa, several years of little to no rain during the rainy seasons, extended droughts and floods have made it extremely challenging for 90 percent of the rural population who depend on agriculture as their primary source of income. The region’s farming mainly relies on rainfall; and the significance of unpredictable rainfall, rising temperatures, extreme drought, and lower crop yields is a real threat to Africa’s poorest communities.
Along with people in Africa, many in the Svay Leu region in Cambodia also spend a good part of their day gathering water rather than having the time to work jobs and earn money. Women and girls typically do most of the water gathering, which can take several hours each day to walk to a distant source of water like a river or pond. Others spend multiple times a day waiting in line at a water station, sometimes for hours, for their chance to fill water vessels, which they must then carry back home. Lack of water and the time spent gathering it takes women and girls not only away from working but going to school, trapping them in a cycle of poverty.
Ladebe, a mother from Bensa, Ethiopia, cares for her three remaining children at home as well as prepares food, cleans the family compound, cares for their cows, collects firewood, works on the farm and gathers water. She describes the trip to collect water as one where she must travel to a pond located at a higher altitude making travel difficult especially on the way down carrying heavy containers of water. Ladebe explains, “The place where we collect water is muddy and slippery. I fell many times and have broken my leg before.”
However despite the time spent and the hazards of the trip, the water Ladebe gathers for her family comes from an unprotected spring. It is subject to debris and dirt along with bacteria from animals and runoff from waste. Due to the contamination in the water, the family is frequently sick.
Lifewater projects are much more than a well. We provide improved sanitation, hygiene and the love of Christ to families like Ladebe’s so parents can work and children can go to school. Local investment ensures safe water sources last for generations to come; and your generous donation makes it possible.to the growing humanitarian crisis, an inadequate water supply has
