SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA -- At this moment, approximately 1.2 billion people around the world lack access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion lack proper sanitation (adequate sewage disposal). “As a result of the current water crisis, the world’s dwindling supply of clean water is blamed for the deaths of 1.8 million children,” a recent United Nation's Human Development Report explained. “In essence,” one newspaper detailed, “nearly 5,000 children under five years of age die every day.” Many of those affected most by the crisis live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“These same children,” the report continued, “miss 443 million days of school each year because of water-related illnesses. The UN also estimates that half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases.” In addition, millions of people (mostly women and children will spend hour upon hour every day walking mile after mile searching for water that is fit for consumption because there is not source of clean water close at hand.

“The time has already come when people will fight and kill each other for sources of clean water,” explains the Missionaries of Africa’s Director of Development, Fr. John Lynch. Fr. Lynch receives hundreds of requests for assistance each year in the Congregation’s Washington, DC, office. A great number of the requests are for help in developing sources of clean water.

Searching for Water!

No Water--No life!

EAST AFRICA -- Like thousands of herders and farmers throughout East Africa, those in Northern Kenya are facing shortages of water and food due to a severe drought that has hit much of the region. Many of the people here are hoping to walk to areas that are less drought-stricken -- but that may not be so easy. The entire region has been hit hard by a drought which has now lasted more than a decade.

The failed rains have created a lack of grazing land. Now, the lack of adequate pastoral land is seen as fueling the ongoing ethnic conflict between the Samburu and the Pokot tribes. If help does not come soon, the situation will worsen. For now, most people in these remote communities are depending on food supplies that were originally meant as relief food meant for primary school children.

“This is a clear indication of how children become the first casualties in situations such as this,” a recent report stated. “Food supplies that might have offered children staples such as milk are being diverted to keep tribes from going to war.”

“Water is in short supply; clean water is even more unlikely,” a public health officer based in Northern Kenya explained. “Most families have only a little water to last them -- in this case, a 20- litre jerrican (about five gallons) of water that has to last for three days or more.”

“Without adequate supplies and sources of safe water,” explains Fr. John Lynch, “many of the people who survive through agriculture -- such as farmers and herders -- will lose their crops, their lives stock and eventually their lives. It is a slow process that will decimate these entire populations.