African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

African Water Development Report 2006Figure 5.8: Distribution of Malaria Infectionin Africatrail a high load of municipal sewage, livestockexcreta and industrial wastewater on the sourceof drinking water, both surface and groundwater.Most faecal-oral pathogens are identified as thecause for gastrointestinal illnesses, with a few exceptionslike the hepatitis viruses.There may also be a myriad of pathogens excretedby humans or animals. The greatest impact ofwater pollution on human health comes fromdrinking water serving as a major vehicle forthe transmission of a wide variety of infectiousdiseases. In many industrialized countries, thewidespread occurrence of the protozoan parasitesCryptosporidium and Giardia in surface watersindicates that any drinking water treatmentplant that draws its water from a surface source,is at risk (Yamamura S. T. el al., 2002).The Burden of Water-associated IllhealthWaterborne diseases infect billions of people annuallyand the mortality reaches five to ten millioncases. Inappropriate handling of excreta, insufficientwater to maintain personal cleanlinessand poor management of the water environmentmay cause enormous risks of ascariasis and otherforms of helminthiasis, leprosy, schistosomiasisand malaria. The World Health Organization(WHO) states that 70 per cent of disease episodesin developing countries are closely linkedto polluted water and/or inappropriate excretatreatment. It also notes that six million childrendie of gastro-intestinal diseases and 500 millionpeople lack clean water to wash their faces annually(Endo T. and Magara Y., 2002). The increasingworld population brings with it an increasingneed for clean freshwater for drinking, hygieneand household purposes as well as for agriculturalirrigation. Population growth also brings in itsLack of access to good quality drinking waterand lack of sanitation, leading to environmentalhealth hazards contribute largely to the very lowlife expectancy in many African countries (fig.5.9). Life expectancy in more than two thirdsof African countries is below the regional averageof about 52 years. Apart from the States innorthern Africa, with the exception of Mauritania,only a few sub-Saharan African countrieshave life expectancy above the average. These includeGhana, Gabon, Senegal, Togo, Eritrea andthe island countries of Saint Helena, Seychelles,Sao Tomé and Principe, the Comoros, Mayotteand Madagascar. The variation within varioussubregions in sub- Saharan Africa is shown inFigure 5.10. The absence of any country of theSouthern Africa subregion can be attributed tothe high prevalence of HIV/AIDS as demonstratedin Box 5.2 for Malawi.90