Clean Water

Water and health go Hand in Hand



1 billion people lack access to improved water supply

It is estimated that globally, we are on schedule to achieve the drinking water Millennium Development Goal, but the corresponding sanitation target will not be met by 2015 without much extra input and effort. If the 1990-2002 trend continues, it is thought that some 2.4 billion people will be without improved sanitation in 2015 - almost as many as are without today.

2.6 billion people lack access to improved sanitation

In sub-Saharan Africa, trends observed since 1990 indicate that neither the sanitation nor the drinking water target will be met by 2015.

GLOSSARY
Malaria: Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes. It was once thought that the disease came from fetid marshes, hence the name mal aria, (bad air). The real cause of malaria is a one-cell parasite called plasmodium. The parasite is transmitted from person to person through the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito.

Schistosomiasis: a parasitic disease caused by a worm that is often found in irrigation ditches and still river water. The water becomes contaminated by Schistosoma eggs when infected people urinate or defecate in the water. The parasites then develop inside snails before re-entering the water where they can penetrate the skin of persons they come in contact with.

Disability adjusted life years (DALY): DALYs for a disease are the sum of the years of life lost due to premature mortality in the population and the years lost due to disability for incident cases of the health condition. One DALY represents the loss of one year of equivalent full health.

Globally, diarrhoeal diseases and malaria accounted for, respectively, 4% and 3% of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost, and 1.8 and 1.3 million deaths in 2002. This burden is almost entirely limited to the under-five age group.

Diarrhoeal diseases
- Every day, diarrhoeal diseases cause some 6,000 deaths, mostly among children under five.
- In 2001, 1.96 million people died from infectious diarrhoeas; 1.3 million were children under five.
- Between 1,085,000 and 2,187,000 deaths due to diarrhoeal diseases can be attributed to the 'water, sanitation and hygiene' risk factor, 90 percent of them among children under five.
- With simple hygiene measures such as washing hands after using the toilet or before preparing food, most of these deaths are preventable.

Malaria
- Over 1 million people die from malaria every year.
- About 90% of the annual global rate of deaths from malaria occur in Africa south of the Sahara.
- Malaria causes at least 300 million cases of acute illness each year.
- Mortality due to malaria increased by 27% between 1990 and 2002, going from 926,000 people to 1,272,000.
- The disease costs Africa more than US$12 million annually and slows economic growth in African countries by 1.3% a year.
- Sleeping under mosquito nets would be one simple but effective way to prevent many cases of malaria, especially for children under five.

Africa accounts for 97% of the world's burden of onchorocerciasis (a parasitic infection), 88% of the world's burden of malaria, 78% of its schistosomiasis burden, and 52% of its trachoma burden.

Schistosomiasis (bilharziasis)
- More than 200 million people worldwide are infected by schistosomiasis.
- 88 million children under fifteen years are infected each year with schistosomes.
- 80% of transmission takes place in Africa south of the Sahara.