Liberia Water Crisis

Liberia Water Crisis

By: Jordan Wilde

Matt Becker

Michael Capra

Facts about Liberia and The Water Crisis

Solutions

• Just over 4 million people live in Liberia
• 37% lack access to water
• 94% lack access to sanitation
• 63% live below poverty line
• 27,000 deaths occur every week from unsafe water and dirty living conditions for children under five years old. 
• The WHO (World Health Organization) reports that over 3.6% of global disease can be prevented simply by improving water supply, sanitation, and hygiene. 

What are the efforts that have been made and have they been accepted?

Works Cited

Further Recommendations

• http://www.charitywater.org/whywater/
• http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/globalhealth-jan-june12-africawater_04-25/
• http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/22/world/africa/face-africa-water-liberia/
• http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/liberia-monrovia-water-sanitation-education-crisis
• http://www.newnarratives.org/stories/tecee-boley/liberias-water-woes-why-clean-safe-water-is-still-out-of-reach-for-many-liberians/
• http://www.who.int/features/2003/09b/en/

Liberia should follow the same footsteps China has before with the water crisis.

I believe Liberia should set up a large project to draw clean water from the lakes and rivers surrounding Liberia.

In china they created a South to North Water Diversion Project to link clean constantly flowing rivers to the more dry areas of China. I believe this could be done in Liberia using the rivers Cavally, Youbou, and Diougou rivers. This would better disperse the clean water the Liberia still has to the people.

China has used this strategy to get the dry areas under control and is has proven to be successful so why wouldn't it be successful in Liberia?

The problems with this solution is that the project cost 62 million dollars for China to carry out and Liberia doesn't have that money, another problem is that the water in the rivers might be too polluted to try to move around the country.

• The Red Cross went to over 20 villages in Liberia to help get the Liberians clean water, the Red Cross was able to get the Liberians clean and running water within three weeks with water pumps in all the villages.
• A Liberian native set up the FACE Africa program to get clean water to the people of Liberia this program has set up at least 20 low-cost clean water, sanitation and hygiene projects, hand dug wells, creating communal latrines, and reconstructing old wells that have benefitted over 7,000 Liberians directly.
• There have been no negative effects after these successful and accepted attempts.
• Liberia still needs more solutions and the people of FACE Africa and the World Health Organization have helped create strategies to end the water crisis in Liberia.

Solutions in Action Now

• Hand Dug Wells
• Drilled Wells
• Rainwater Catchments
• Gravity Fed Systems
• Piped Systems
• Water Purification Systems
• BioSand filters
• Spring Protectors
• Latrines

Region

Demographics

Population 4,092,310

Age Structure: 0-14 years: 43.2%, 15-24 years: 17.9%, 25-54 years: 31.5%, 55-64 years: 4.3%, 65 years and over: 3.1%

Life expectancy: 58.21 years

male: 56.56 years

female: 59.9 years

Birth rate 35.07 births/1,000 population

Death rate 9.9 deaths/1,000 population

Literacy rate for people 15 and over is:

total: 60.8%

male: 64.8%

female: 56.8%

Child labor - children ages 5-14 total number: 177,160

percentage: 21 %

Safe drinking water is available to 79% of Liberia's urban dwellers and only 13% of its rural population.

Water Sources

Environment

Environment:

• Recent estimates suggest that some 104,000 acres of primary forest are converted annually to degraded forest or transformed into bushland by shifting cultivation

• Hunting and loss of habitat have decimated wildlife along the coastal plain, and there are no longer any large herds of big game in the interior.

• Liberia cities produce about 2 million tons of solid waste per year

• Eleven of the nation's mammal species and 13 of its bird species are endangered

• Virtually no waste management sector, along with a lack of proper toilets, means household trash, human feces, and hazardous medical waste is randomly disposed throughout the city, in some areas swelling to piles large enough to block roads.

• Since the end of its 13-year civil war 2003, Liberia has had no comprehensive system for dealing with trash

• While some laws are on the books, there is currently no enforcement or monitoring

Where does Liberia get their water?

• The major basins supply 97 % of water to the country. Liberia gets water from 6 main rivers: Mano, Lofa, Saint Paul, Saint John, Cestos, and Cavalla. The short watercourses which drain about 3 percent of the country.

Does Liberia share their water with anyone?

• The Mano and Mugowi Rivers border with Sierra Leone. The Makone, Lofa, Via, Niada and Mani rivers share with Guinea. The Cavalla river shares with Cote d'lvoire, which forms a large part of the border bewteen the two countries.

What do they do with it?

• The main water user was agriculture (57%) followed by municipalities (28%) and industry (15%). In 2000 agriculture and forest contributed over 90 percent of export earnings, mainly from rubber, timber, cocoa, and coffee.

What is the significant problem?

• Population growth in Urban Areas. Inadequacy of Human Resource Capacities. Uncontrolled disposal of waste. Water Activities fragmented amongst ministries and institutions. Level of Development of Water Resources for various activities (Agricultural, mining, logging, aquaculture and activities in other economic sectors) Human encroachment on ecosystems of coastal lagoons, estuaries, deltas, and mangroves.

Challenges

Q: What challenges does this area face with water shortages?

A: Businesses are failing to the essential water needed. Residents in these areas have lost there only source of water.

Q: What is the reason for this shortage?

A: The water supply is usually limited to open sources such as streams, swamps, and shallow, uncovered wells. Intensive heat will dry up safe and reliable water sources. Sewage and disposing of waste in water sources has made the water not consumable. As a result, especially during the rainy season, is that insects and parasites thrive, creating a major health hazard.

Q: What effects does this shortage have on the people and the area?

A: forces citizens to rely on hand pumps constructed by aid agencies that continue to be crowded by desperate water searching residents.

Health Problems: -Malaria -Lice

-Dengue Fever -Guinea Worm Disease

-Hepatitis A & B -Hookworm -Meningitis -Salmonella

-West Nile Virus -Yellow Fever

Eighteen percent of all deaths in Liberia are related to illnesses caused by poor water and sanitation – illnesses like diarrhea, malaria and cholera