The majority of water stress countries are located in the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia, where governments are least likely to be able to undertake measures that will reduce or solve problems of water supply such as:

Pollution controls to limit contamination of water supplies in surface and underground stores.

Increased efficiency in water use (e.g. by using trickle irrigation that feeds water only to plants roots).

Effective population policies to control further growth.

There are striking differences between water quality and degree of access to clean waters supplies between MEDCs and LEDCs.

Europe and North America

•100% access to clean water is taken for granted.

LEDCs

•Average access to clean water is about 70%.

However this average still masks the wide variations between and within countries.

Country Population with access to clean water

Chad 24%

Ethiopia 25%

Zambia 27%

Haiti 28%

Papua New Guinea

28%

Madagascar 29%

Angola 32%

DR Congo 34%

Sierra Leone 34%

Cambodia 36%

The world region with the lowest access is sub-Saharan Africa with just 51%; this is the region where 7 of the 10 countries with the lowest access to clean water are located.

Shade and label these countries on your world map.

Describe the pattern shown.

In rural areas, access to clean water and proper sanitation is almost invariably lower than in the cities

World average access to clean water

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World average access to proper santitation

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Higher access to clean water and sanitation in urban areas

Cities are more modern and developed with factories and offices.

Diseases from dirty water spread more quickly among high population densities.

Urban incomes are higher and more can afford to pay for water and services

Cheaper to provide services when many customers live close together.

Easier to put pressure on the government or authorities to make improvements.

Safe water is an alternative name for clean water. This is because lack of access to clean water supplies has knock-on effects for people’s health.

Water related diseases are in high abundance in the tropics, where hot, wet climates provide ideal environments for insects and bacteria to thrive and multiply.

A. Water-borne diseases – diseases spread by drinking or by washing food in contaminated water:

Diarrhoea Typhoid

Dysentery Hepatitis

Cholera

B. Water-related insect-borne diseases – diseases spread by insects that breed in water:

Malaria – carried by mosquitoes.

Sleeping sickness – carried by tsetse flies.

C. Water-based diseases – carriers of the disease live in water:

Bilharzia – carried by water snails

A large proportion of the diseases that make people sick and too weak to work, or that kill the most vulnerable, notably infants and children, are associated in some way with water.

Malaria for example, kills 40% of the world’s population in over 90 countries. It kills 4 children every minute. The most virulent strains are present in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with 90% of all deaths.

Overall, at least 2 million people die from water-related diseases in LEDCs every year.

Improvements in water availability and quality can bring great social and economic benefits to rural dwellers in LEDCs.

Deaths per 1000 live births

Country Children under 1 year Children under 5 years

Ethiopia 105 195

Bangladesh 75 120

Zambia 100 200

Nepal 90 110

Sudan 80 115

China 45 50

UK 5 6

Create a bar graph to show the information above.

Describe and explain what your graphs show.

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