Surveying Rwanda’s Water Supply
The supply of drinking water is very scarce throughout Africa, but the article that I read focuses on Rwanda. Since 1994, after its civil war, the government has devoted its time and money to human sanitation efforts. Yet a huge part of the country lacks access to clean drinking water and even a larger portion lacks human sanitation which is what the government wanted to try and fix. Since Africa is one of the continents that is most vulnerable to climate change, global warming is most likely going to make its clean drinking water situation worse. As the years progress, the sanitation and drinking water situation in the African country of Rwanda is not getting better.
I was not surprised with the information in this article. I was also aware that this situation is occurring. It is not our job to try and support the government of Rwanda. We have our own government with its own problems. We also should only be sending minimal money Africa, as our country has debt problems and cannot balance the budget. I can relate to this because when I was in second grade, there was a water main break. We had to drink from bottled water and use minimal amounts of water. The picture above is of three kids drinking dirty water. It shows how scarce the water is and also how unsafe it is to drink.
Questions:
1. How long will it take to fix the water problem?
2. From what bodies of water can the people of Rwanda obtain clean water?
3. Why is the United States government sending money to Rwanda when it has a large debt?
4. Is it possible to tap into the water tables in Rwanda?
5. Why does global warming affect clean water in Africa?
Hi Orange Group ~ Connor, if you read this can you email me? I have a quick question for you about your viability analysis.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
I feel bad for those kids in Rwanda, who are unable to get the water their body needs. I think its not fair that water is scarce and/or dirty in so many African countries, including Rwanda, but I agree with Brian that we should not be helping their problem to an extent. It would be great if we could help, but we have many issues of our own. Even with our issues, we have managed to support the world in many different ways. I believe that some successful European countries should support Africa in their struggle for life.
ReplyDeleteI can relate this article to all of the previous articles our group has found because they all trace back to global warming. I never knew global warming had so many effects to worldwide ecosystems, and I'm sure there are more places global warming affects. This is why it is very imperative to slow down the process of global warming.
To answer Question #1, I'm sure it will take a very long time, maybe even a couple hundred years. Not many have the courage to spend the effort and support Africa in their time of need. Hopefully, they get support sooner.
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ReplyDeleteWater is a basic necessity of life; you would think that everyone would be able to obtain clean drinking water. I feel really bad for the kids and people of Rwanda, many young kids die each year from unclean drinking water. The fact the water is mixed in with human waste is just disgusting. I agree with Brian, it’s not our responsibility to get these people clean drinking water. It may sound selfish but, I feel like every country thinks its America’s responsibility to bail them out when times get tough. They have to realize that we have our own problems, which we need to solve. It’s Rwanda’s government that needs to take responsibility and make the water sanitary. Their own citizens are going to keep on dying if this does not change.
ReplyDeleteQuestion #2: Rwanda does have access to water on the western side of the country. Lake Kivu is a huge lake that could provide clean drinking water if treated properly. Also through this map there seems to be rivers and other small lakes that run through the middle and eastern part of Rwanda. While I do not know it these waterways are completely sanitary, with the right treatment they could provide water to the people of Rwanda.
Here is the link to the picture: http://africa.theworldatlas.net/rwanda/map.html for some reason it wouldn't let me post it.
I too feel really bad for all of the people in
ReplyDeleteAfrica who can not obtian the clean drinking water. As well as I agree with the fact that since the U.S does have some of it's own problems maybe we should fix those first. But what I think would be a good idea is to have all those clebs maybe go and help out Africa just like Jay-Z. To be honest they are not really hurting for money and two what he did really wasn't the exspensive. But yeah maybe some of the succesfull europeen countries could help out just a little bit.
Hey everyone. Sorry my comment from before never posted, I believe i was logged in incorrectly and am reposting now.
ReplyDeleteOpinion: I feel very bad for the people in Rwanda that have no water. I couldn't live a day without readily accessable water. This must be very hard on the people of Rwanda. i do think, however, that the government of Rwanda should work on their own problem. The US has their own water problem and should deal with that before helping other countries.
To answer question 3: It's not the US government that is spending, but private investers. When Jay-z went out to Africa he did it on his own funds, not the USA's. The government doesn't spend a lot of money on getting water for African nations. There is a lot of money coming from donations and charities from America, but not the government directly.