Dirty water kills 320,000 children in Africa

“Over 320,000 children, under the age of five, died of easily preventable and treatable diarrhoeal diseases in Africa in 2012,” said a survey released by the organisation.
The figure was more than the rest of the world combined, GGA said in a statement issued ahead of its ‘Africa Survey 2014’ report which was released last week in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Africa Survey 2014 is a comprehensive annual collection of social, political and economic indicators for the continent’s 55 countries compiled from a wide range of sources, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
According to GGA, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) alone accounted for 15 per cent or 47,390 of these deaths. “It also accounted for over a third of all cholera cases in Africa in 2012, at 33, 661,” the statement said.
GGA explained that the spread of diarrhoeal diseases was directly related to lack of access to clean water and sanitation, medication and healthcare services.
The share of the DRC population with access to potable water reportedly remained almost unchanged between 2005 and 2012 at 46.5 per cent, making it the country with the least access to clean water in Africa.
In addition, only 31 per cent of the population in DRC had access to sanitation that protected people from contact with faecal matter in 2012. The average for Africa was only slightly better at 33 per cent.
“Clean water and adequate sanitation are essential to eradicate easily preventable water-borne diseases that are claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of children,” remarked GGA researcher Kate van Niekerk. “African governments need to invest more in water and sanitation infrastructure to increase access to these basic services.”