Kenya's Unquenchable Crisis

In our daily lives, we are able to easily get water with the switch of a faucet. The average American uses 80-100 gallons of water a day on simple luxuries such as flushing the toilet and showering, but we rarely think about the difficulties going on in the rest of the world. In Kenya, 10,000 infants are killed each year due to a lack of clean drinking water (Namale). The way that the Kenyan government has chosen to distribute money has resulted in a shortage of water and severely poor hygiene practices. These both contribute to wide-spread water-borne diseases, family complications, and various economic issues. The government isn’t putting in a significant effort to stop this issue, as it is spreading fast and affecting many different parts of the country. Not only can bad sanitation of water lead to several types of sicknesses, but it also affects personal and family life. Staying home to get water takes away education from many girls, along with many other setbacks (Barton). A majority - up to 68% of the population does not have access to safe drinking water. In fact, most visits to the hospital are due to water sanitation related complications (Kirui). This same issue is also the top reason for death among infants and children. The previously mentioned factors make way for many diseases to be spread throughout people in Kenya that are found in food and water, and spread through human contact as well. The most common is Cholera, which comes from Vibrio cholera and is very often a deathly disease (Lovelle). The Kenyan government offers much more money towards the treatment of the results of poor sanitation rather than choosing to spend it on providing cleaner services for citizens in the first place. People living in more urban areas are more likely to have access to a reliable water source than those living in more rural areas, or commonly in the slums of Nairobi (Kalua). Kenya remains at a very low budget towards water, and spends billions of dollars less on its supply each year compared to other countries. Actually, each person has about 400,000 liters available, while other countries such as Ireland and the United states have a much higher availability of over 8 million liters (Kalua). However, there some energy being put into improving this problem, especially by outside organizations. The government has started to install more clean facilities and hand out water-purification kits to families. One specifically that has been helpful is a jerry-can made by a company Solvatten, which is designed to be set out in the sun for a few hours (Kirui). It works with both the heat and sunlight help get rid of bacteria found in water that most are drinking as it is the only option they have. An ideal solution would be a greater investment into early prevention efforts, such as water distribution to slums, and enforcing superior cleanliness in less developed areas. Works Cited: Barton, Alexandra. “Water In Crisis - Women In Kenya.” The Water Project, thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-crisis-kenya-women. Kalua, Dr Isaac. “Kenya's Water Shortage a Silent Crisis.” The Standard, The Standard, 25 Feb. 2017, www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001230716/kenya-s-water-shortage-a-silent-crisis. Kirui, Dominic. “For Clean Drinking Water in Kenya, Just Add Sunshine (and a Can).” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 22 Feb. 2018, www.reuters.com/article/us-kenya-water-africa/for-clean-drinking-water-in-kenya-just-add-sunshine-idUSKCN1G62A6. Lovelle, Madeilene. “Water-Borne Cholera Outbreak in East Africa and the Middle East.” Future Directions International, 2 Mar. 2016, www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/water-borne-cholera-outbreak-in-east-africa-and-the-middle-east/. Namale, Douglas. “KENYA: Water and Sanitation Ailments Kill 10 000 Infants Annually.” Mtaani Insight, 28 Aug. 2014, mtaaniinsight.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/kenya-water-and-sanitation-ailments-kill-10-000-infants-annually/. Obare, Osinde. “Water-Borne Diseases Cost Kenya Sh27b Annually.” The Standard, The Standard, 19 Aug. 2014, www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/article/2000131955/water-borne-diseases-cost-kenya-sh27b-annually. Seager, Ashley. “Dirty Water Kills 5,000 Children a Day.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 Nov 2006, www.theguardian.com/business/2006/nov/10/water.environment.