A call to end 'water apartheid'

JOHANNESBURG -- While people in Africa's wealthy suburbs use water to spray down driveways, maintain lush lawns, and fill swimming pools, slum dwellers often pay much more per gallon for what little of the crucial resource they can get, according to a UN Development Program report calling for an end to "water apartheid."

At the same time, dirty water is the second-leading cause of death among children globally after respiratory infections. It kills 1.8 million children under the age of 5 each year, more than HIV/AIDS, malaria, war, or car accidents, says the report, which was released yesterday in Cape Town.

"In the year 2015 they plan to send a spaceship to Jupiter to search for water, yet in Africa or India we can't get water to people who need it," said Kevin Watkins, the report's author, at a briefing for media in Johannesburg. The session was held Tuesday, although release of the report was embargoed until yesterday.

The report's main contention was that if countries boost access to clean water and sanitation simultaneously, the rates of child survival in developing countries can rocket "almost overnight," Watkins said.

Globally, 2.6 billion people have no access to proper sanitation and 1.1 billion people lack clean water. Most of the latter group uses about 1.3 gallons of water a day, compared to 40 gallons a day used by the average American, the biggest water guzzler on the planet.

"It is hard to find anything that has a greater impact on human life than water," Watkins said. "For many people it is the only chance to escape from poverty."

In Peru, children in families with toilets and clean water were 59 percent more likely to survive childhood, according to the report. In Egypt, the figure is 57 percent.

In cities such as Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania, people are paying more for water than New Yorkers, Watkins said.

He said even those developing countries that were boosting access to water often are not also increasing the number of toilets or improving drainage systems, risking the spread of disease.

The report said the crisis in water and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa retarded economic growth by 5 percent of gross domestic product a year, more than the region receives in foreign aid. A big boost in spending on water and sanitation would pay for itself in economic growth.

"No other investment could bring greater benefits," said Watkins. He said collecting water was a colossal waste of labor, with the burden falling overwhelmingly on women and young girls. Sub-Saharan African women spend about 40 billion hours a year walking and queuing to collect water, equivalent to a year's labor for the entire workforce in France.

The report calls for a global action plan led by the Group of Eight leading industrial countries to boost the focus on water and sanitation.

It recommends that each developing country earmark at least 1 percent of its GDP to sanitation and sewage.

Some countries spend much more on their military than water. In Pakistan, where 118,000 people die every year due to diarrhea caused by dirty water, the government spends 0.1 percent of its budget on water and sanitation and 47 times more on the military.

India, where 450,000 die annually from diarrhea, spends eight times more on its military than on water resources.