Water is life.
More than one billion people in developing countries do not have access to drinking water; 2,4 billion do not have suitable water supplies. The lack and limited access to water has a devastating effect on sanitation: the lack of clean water and good practices provoke the spreading of diarrhea, cholera, typhoid and other infectious diseases that prove inexorably fatal if not cured in time.
The consequences of the scarcity of water on the continent of Africa are even more devastating for women and girls, who are, traditionally, assigned the responsible of finding water, usually from non-protected sources (seasonal rivers, wells, water sources and swamps). The social effects are devastating: neglect of children, lack of domestic hygiene and scholastic absenteeism.
Thanks to the initiative WASH (water & hygiene), AMREF aims to improvement the access to drinking water, through the building of wells, aqueducts and cisterns to collect rainwater. This programme is reinforced through the continuous training of the community on aspects of health and hygiene education and the prevention of infections caused by unsanitary water.
Improving access to drinking water and adequate sanitation would dramatically reduce illness and death in poor countries: the availability of clean water reduces mortality by up to 25%, while the use of toilets reduces it by 32%.
Healthy drinking water:
Amref’s strategy for counteracting the tragic difficulties in accessing healthy drinking water, experienced daily by Africans, is to develop a series of projects that can guarantee the community the instruments and understanding necessary to check the quality of water, and an increase in available resources, thanks to the construction of wells.
Epidemics and endemic diseases:
Amref actively intervenes in the fight against the spread of diseases caused by epidemics and endemic diseases.
