Problem
In many areas over the world there is a vast majority of villages who do not have running water. People travel long distances to retrieve water that isn't even clean. Women in the specific village of Foro ONLY go and get water. That is all they do. The two problems that are occurring is that one, women are wasting their life away traveling to get water, and two, the water is very unsafe. Nearly 900 million people in the world have no access to clean water. Dirty water kills 3.3 million people around the world annually. "If the millions of women who haul water long distances had a faucet by their door whole societies would be transformed" (Rosenberg 2). Because of the deprivation of water, proper hygiene is never apparent. They cannot wash their hands, clean their clothes, or shower. Another woman said, "When we are born, we know that we will have a hard life..." The women often don't question what they are doing because is have been part of the culture for many years.
Solution
Bringing clean water close to people's homes is the key to reversing the cycle of misery. All of the long hard hours spent hauling water can be used to grow more food, raise more animals, or even start income- producing businesses. When a girl or women is freed from the "water slavery" then they can choose to go to school and have a better life. You may think that just bringing water lines to the village is an easy fix but it is much more difficult than it seems. Foro is located right on top of a mountain. A couple of solutions that are reasonable are to either put a well near the river, or somehow get running water up the mountain. Putting the well down by the river still means the water is far away, but it is more reliable, much easier to get, and more likely to be clean. A solution the article had referred to and have started working on is put a motorized pump that would push the water up the mountain to a reservoir. Gravity would then carry it back down to taps in local villages. They want to put in a community shower tap and two others for water. This is a long shot. A more reasonable idea is to build a well near the river and purify the water. The article, 'Chemical drinking water quality in Ghana: Water costs and scope for advanced treatment' states a solution for improvement in water quality. Researchers identified that 38 percent of the water in wells had exceedingly high numbers of chemicals and metals that caused illness. They want to begin improving the water quality with water treatment that is available. The cost is a big concern and problem in making this solution work. The water treatment will help; it is a matter of getting the money needed to perform it. The last solution is supported in the article, 'Towards the Establishment of Water Management' proves that using artificial recharge will be an effective means of storing water near the village. Advantages of using this method are: easy to use, elimination of evaporation, improvement of the quality of water and storing water during drought season. A study held in Al-Ain in 1998 shows that using the artificial recharge system proved to be a success.
Conclusion
If the new solutions for helping aid in the deprivation of water works, women will be able to go to fields and help her husband with different tasks such as making dinner, cleaning, and collecting food for the goats. Women would be given opportunity and have a much more enjoyable life. One woman said,"If it works, I will be so happy, so very happy."
Works Cited:
Chemical drinking water quality in Ghana: Water costs and scope for advanced treatment Original Research Article
Science of The Total Environment, Volume 408, Issue 11, 1 May 2010, Pages 2378-2386 Helfrid M.A. Rossiter, Peter A. Owusu, Esi Awuah, Alan M. MacDonald, Andrea I. Schäfer
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