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Gaborone Botswana Water Quality
Water quality around the world is suffering. Gaborone, Botswana's, water quality problems are just one example of thousands. It's water pollution and supply problems are in the lime light now because of the conference regarding the management of African water resources. We all need to take action now before this becomes even more prevalent, and becomes a problem in developed countries too.
The city of Gaborone is the capitol of Botswana, in southern Africa. From September 8 to 10, 2007, Gaborone will host a major international and interdisciplinary conference on the subject of managing African water resources. The forum, entitled Africa Water Resource Management, (AfricaWRM) is sponsored by IASTED -- the International Association of Science and Technology for Development as part of the United Nations' "Decade of Water for Life" program.
Botswana is an appropriate site for AfricaWRM 2008 because the nation showcases the stark contrast between modern, urban water supplies and the desperately inadequate water and sanitation resources of rural Africa. Botswana did not even pass a law establishing a national department of water and sanitation development until 1998.
Gaborone, the fastest-growing urban area in the world for many years, is now home to slightly more than half of Botswana's population of 1.6 million. Virtually all the urban infrastructure is less than 40 years old, and 100 percent of its population is served by modern drinking water facilities. Still, only 84 percent of Gaborone residents have access to modern sanitation facilities.
The situation is much worse in rural Botswana. About 44 percent of the rural populace does not have access to sanitation, and 9 percent lacks clean drinking water. Lack of clean water and sanitation leads to widespread diseases that are nearly unknown in developed areas: cholera, typhoid, malaria, yellow fever, filariasis, river blindness, sleeping sickness, guinea worm, bilharzia, trachoma, scabies and more.
Gaborone's hyper-growth may contribute to rural water problems. The city's appetite for water is growing as fast as its population. A larger city dam built to meet demand for urban water may deplete supplies in rural areas downstream. Nearby asbestos and manganese deposits fuel industrial expansion and its associated water pollution.
AfricaWRM 2008 will include five major themes:
- Water Supply and Sustainable Use
- Wastewater and Stormwater Management
- Integrated Watershed Management
- Pollution Prevention and Reduction in Industry
- Issues in Implementing Environmentally Sound Technologies
AfricaWRM 2008 will be well-attended by organizations such as the African Medical & Research Foundation (AMREF), which has over 40 years of nonprofit experience in providing water and basic sanitation resources to rural Africa. With the aid of donations from all over the world, AMREF has inspired thousands of stories such as this one:
My Name is Ester Nzomo. I am a mother of 4 and a farmer. Three years ago I used to spend eight hours a day in search of and collecting water. I would wake up at 3:00 in the morning to walk 12 kms to collect a 20 litre jerry can of water which I carried on my head. Often the water I managed to find was contaminated and my children often suffered from diarrhea and typhoid. In 2000 AMREF mobilised all the women in my village and provided material to build a shallow well. Now I spend minutes and not hours collecting water and I am able to grow maize and cow peas on my farm. My children are able to spend more time in school because they are not sick. In fact some of my friends' children are able to attend school for the first time because they are no longer needed to help fetch water.
Water quality issues are a problem for everyone. But the way water is handled in the U.S., for example, citizens are unaware of the problems facing them with water supplies and water pollution. The Caborone, Botswana, water quality problem should be a wake-up call for others, but sadly it probably won't be. It's going to take having this problem at "home" before enough people take action to make a difference.
