Currently, I am in Addis Ababa Ethiopia doing my internship. I’ve always been interested in the health status of Ethiopians, specifically how environmental factors affect the health of the citizens. One of the greatest concerns is the lack of access to potable water. According to the UNICEF Ethiopia, only 31% of the entire country has access to clean, safe water, and only 18% of households have access to clean facilities. Ethiopia is among the lowest in the world in coverage levels for proper and safe water sanitation and water quality. In the previous blog, I discussed the issue of Cholera in underserved populations. This comes from poor water sanitation and water contamination. Ethiopia experiences frequent outbreaks of water-borne illness, like cholera, in rural and urban areas. One of the contributing factors is the amplified susceptibility to such diseases are the additional conditions of contamination. For example, it is not unusually to find human or animal excrement in the water used for daily living (drinking, washing, and bathing).
Additionally, poor levels of water sanitation and potable water access and coverage have a great social implication. For example, a great amount of time and money is used accessing safe water. In rural areas, women spend hours fetching water. This is physically draining- women carry the water in large clay vase-like pots that the carry for miles- as seen in the picture. Also, children are sent to get water and also carry it for miles. If proper water sanitation facilities were established, women and children could spend less time and energy getting water and focus on self-improving tasks like education. In urban areas, I’ve personally experienced the burden of accessing clean water. My uncle had to import water filters from Europe to put in the shower to ensure safe water to bath in. For drinking and cooking purposes, we buy bottled water on weekly bases. This has been very costly and tedious.http://www.unicef.org/ethiopia/wes.html
