My Final

For my final, I decided to do option #2. I have researched all of the different problems surrounding water and sanitation throughout Africa, and although many of the needs are unique to the different geographical regions, many of them are general solutions that could assist Africa as whole.

For example, north Africa is naturally a water-scarce region yet much of their source of revenue relies on agriculture and farming. A way to fix this problem could be introducing some low-cost technologies like treadles for the crops, or simply cultivating crops that are more "water-efficient" meaning that they require less water and can actually feed more people.

Sub-Saharan Africa also suffers from water-scarcity, and as a result of this women and young children walk up to 3 or 4 hours a day just to get clean water! To put this into perspective, around 40 billion hours are lost annually just from hauling water! A possible solution for this problem unites education and water and sanitation...by placing Playpumps (refer to my last blog) near schools, kids would have a place to play and a source of water thus enabling the schools to have better sanitation and a safer environment.

Overall, the main problem in Africa seems to be that any kind of effort being made to provide clean water is being handled as an isolated issue by the government. Clean water and sanitation are both very local and individually-based issues, so the government trying to handle this issue without any communication with smaller communities isn't the most efficient technique. In addition to this, in case any one hasn't noticed, it seems like the majority of African problems are all related to one another, so trying to tackle this issue as a separate entity doesn't make a lot of sense. Ideas like the Playpump benefit children and also address multiple issues like water sanitation and education.

There are a near-infinite amount of websites that accept donations, and even just being aware of these issues helps to make a difference.