Global S&T Development Trend Analysis Platform of Resources and Environment
COVID-19: Solving Africa’s water crisis is more urgent than ever | |
admin | |
2020-04-30 | |
发布年 | 2020 |
语种 | 英语 |
国家 | 国际 |
领域 | 资源环境 |
正文(英文) |
Many African cities have had to take drastic measures in recent years to tackle water shortages. Cape Town’s historic shortage in 2018 is fresh in our minds. South African authorities narrowly avoided disaster by rationing drinking water to 50 liters per inhabitant per day in a city that was used to consuming large volumes of water. That same year, Bouaké in Côte d’Ivoire received emergency financing of $8.5 million from the World Bank to cope with a serious water shortage. The intervention solved the shortage by building two compact water treatment plants, boring and fitting 20 new wells, rehabilitating 82 hand pumps in the villages connected to the city’s water system, and distributing safe water by water tankers. Water, sanitation and hygiene central to the COVID-19 crisis The World Health Organization’s number one recommended protective measure against the coronavirus is to wash hands frequently with soap. Ensuring the availability of safe water for all is clearly vital to keep up the fight against the spread of COVID-19 and future pandemics. An estimated 70% to 80% of the region’s diseases are attributable to poor water quality. Dysentery and cholera, for example, are among the leading causes of infant mortality. African governments have now put in place rapid response plans to combat the COVID-19 emergency. Yet most of these plans concentrate on the immediate health care response and focus less on improving access to water and sanitation, other than outfitting health centers and other public places with handwashing facilities. Rapid urbanization calls for sustainable solutions to improve access The coming years will see populations doubling in some 100 major cities. Some, such as Lagos in Nigeria, with its 23 million inhabitants today, and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 12 million, are megalopolises already. The world will also see other pandemics. And climate change will increase the episodes of drought. Hence it is vital for African governments to put strategies in place, earmark part of their budget, and develop policies to supply water, sanitation, and hygiene services for all their people. A number of solutions are available to them:
Today’s historic health crisis will deal a long-term blow to the global economy, but it will hit the fragile African economies even harder. The faster these economies respond, the more resilient they will become. A sustainable response to COVID-19 and the pandemics that will follow must include a focus on water and sanitation. |
URL | 查看原文 |
来源平台 | World Bank Blogs |
文献类型 | 新闻 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/271096 |
专题 | 资源环境科学 |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | admin. COVID-19: Solving Africa’s water crisis is more urgent than ever. 2020. |
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