Ethiopia Water Crisis

In the United States, we take fresh drinking water for granted. That's not the case for hundreds of millions of people elsewhere in the world. The problem of polluted water and poor sanitation around the world is enormously grave. In the time it has taken you to read this far, a child has perished because of that problem, according to the CDC one child dies every twenty two seconds. One third of the world does not have clean drinking water. These are shocking statistics. Why isn't more being doing about it? Why isn't the problem better known? What could a single nurse due to help with this global epidemic?

In many of these countries where this water deficiency exists, it's not just because of a physical lack of water, but moreover people do not have the means to access the water that is in many cases directly below them. Half of the world's hospital beds are filled with people suffering from a water related disease. In these developing

Most people collect water from shallow, exposed watering holes which they share with all sorts of creatures. Other people collect water from shallow wells. Both of these sources are subject to pollution as rain water washes waste from adjacent areas into the source. The containers women use to carry water back to the community weigh up to forty pounds. Often, younger children are left at home while their parents and older siblings collect water as the men are at work.

In the last thirty years, Ethiopia has experienced frequent droughts followed by food shortages and mass starvation. During these times of scarcity, water-related diseases flourish in poor underdeveloped communities. As surface water sources such as ponds and natural springs dry up. Residual water sources are severely contaminated by ecological waste, such as human and animal excrement, which is washed in when it does rain. The stagnant water serves as a breeding place for mosquito