Water supply problems in LICs
Water key terms
Water borne diseases
• At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by
patients suffering from diseases associated with lack of access to
safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
• The majority of the illness in the world is caused by fecal matter
• 88% of cases of diarrhea worldwide are attributable to unsafe
water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene.
• 90% of all deaths caused by diarrheal diseases are children under 5
years of age, mostly in developing countries.
• It is estimated that improved sanitation facilities could reduce
diarrhea-related deaths in young children by more than one-third. If
hygiene promotion is added, such as teaching proper hand washing,
deaths could be reduced by two thirds. It would also help
accelerate economic and social development in countries where
sanitation is a major cause of lost work and school days because of
illness.
Homework:
Complete research on one of the following
diseases: Bilharzia, Cholera, or Typhoid, guinea
worm, trachoma
Your research should cover:
• How poor water supply causes it
• Parts of the world that it is particularly prevalent
• What impact the disease has
Water pollution: Case study the
Achuar people in the Amazon
Who are the Achuar people?
Where do they live?
Why is their water being polluted?
What impact does the pollution
have?
The Achuar Tribe, Peru
It is a familiar story. Big business moves into a
pristine wilderness and starts destroying the
environment and by turn the livelihoods of
the indigenous people who live there.
http://www.bbc.co.u
k/learningzone/clips/
the-achuar-tribe-oftheamazon/7465.html
Location
Oil Company Occidental
Petroleum located in the
Oriente region of Ecuador.
When oil was discovered in the
Amazon in 1964 oil
companies began to move
in at hasty rates in order to
gain claims on land for
development and profit.
Pollution is contaminating the
larger ecosystem and
sending toxins downstream
to Peru.
Effects
Effects cont….
• Due to the development of the Amazon Rainforest the
Achuar people’s numbers and livelihood has been
declining.
• As a result they have been pushed off a portion of their
land
• Oil spills that take place in the Achuar territory are seldom
cleaned up and if they are the oil is improperly buried
below the ground.
• Major oil pipelines run above rivers that the Achuar depend
on for bathing and water.
• When these oil pipelines break., which occurs often, the
water pollutes the Achuar waters and they are left with no
safe alternatives to drinking water
Self assessment