Clean water crucial to health of Ugandans

More disturbing news continues to emerge from our continent. Africa’s health facilities are in the spotlight because one third of health facilities in developing countries don’t have running water, let alone being clean and safe for patients. It has been documented that sub-Saharan African countries are the most affected.

This raises concern about the performance of these facilities as far as sanitation is concerned. Where we have shortage of water supply, concerns about sanitation come up!
So, how exactly do these facilities operate without water? It is unthinkable.

A hospital should not lack water. That is why this story very much mirrors those abstract fairy tales that kids gather around the fire place to listen to. You would think this cannot be true but we are compelled to believe because of one thing: statistics don’t lie! Several well respected news sources indicate that this information is a fact.

Reports show that water availability in Sierra Leone’s and Liberia’s health facilities is only about 20 per cent. This clearly shows that hospital water access in our part of the world is a big problem. Also, reports show that some hospitals have to find options. They transport water from far off places while other health centres harvest rainwater, which needs more processing to be used in specific cases.

Statistics also indicate that every year, half a million babies die before they are one month old. Lack of clean water and poor sanitation are the causes. What is more disturbing is that upon reaching out for medication, their conditions worsen and poor sanitation in hospitals to blame.

One assumption is that health centres located in arid places lack adequate water. To make matters worse, climate patterns are increasingly changing to our disadvantage and rain trends are becoming unpredictable. As a result, the hydrological cycle has become unreliable.

This spells doom for many sub-Saharan countries because of the uncertainin water sustainability. The second assumption is that it could be because provision of water supply is neglected. If this is the case, then the times ahead are going to be harsh and this puts the health of people who go to seek treatment at risk.

Part of the solution requires high level commitment to ensure constant water supply in health facilities. As an immediate option, many facilities that don’t have continuous supply of water are going to be forced to rely on rain water collection and storage. Even then, this can only be possible when there is reliable quantity and quality of rain. Rain water quality needs to be controlled so that it is fit for specific hospital use. Depending on its quality, harvesting and harnessing rain water should be encouraged. Large scale water harvesting will definitely ease water shortage in many health centres.
Simon J. Mone,
smone@mail.com