lauantai 20. marraskuuta 2010

Agua para todos - Water for all

Luo
With the humanitarian aid given by Solidaarisuus there has been distribiuted water almost to 10 000 house holds in Somaliland which suffrers from bad droughts. Nevertheless, famine, incrising prices of water and  infant mortality are going to treathen if the draught is continuing for much longer. (Solidaarisuus 2008.) 

Inequality in access to natural resources is shockingly large between the developing and the developed countries and communities. The most of the natural resources are in hands of the richest people and the poor are left with almost nothing. In the last decades the actions of the industrialized countries have led the world in the verge of destruction and the poorest are the ones to suffer the most of the consequences. Natural hazards, draught, floods, loss of crop and insecurity in life are just some o the examples that Global warming is causing in several countries. The WHO estimates that the over quarter of health problems is due to air, water, soil and food and that the biggest burden of these goes to the poor and vulnerable communities. (McMichael A.J et al. 2008.)

Sustainability is the word in the lips of all: How to provide sustainable development, healthy, more equal and better life for all without risking the economic growth and the future of the globe. Unfortunately many of the policies  mainly concentrate on assuring the sustainability of economical development and leave aside the policy making that would better facilitate sustainable progress of nation (such as education, gender equality, health services, evenly divided access to resources and equal opportunities for all). 


If you wish to read more about NGO's and sustainable development projects, here are some very interesting link by BBC. This challenge shows a different kind of way of influencing people and making them to participate. BBC chose 10 countries which has had successful development projects ran by small NGO's and people have been able to vote their favourite among them. There are projects from almost all the continents and each project has a video. Also Peru is involved in this competition by a successful rural agriculture project. Also rain water harvesting project in Mexico City, development project with the Maya population in Guatemala, project of protecting Coral reefs in Madagascar or generating ecological electricity in Rwanda are included in the challenge

 World Challenge 10 - Pass it On. BBC's challenge for sustainable development


Picture by: BBC News, 2007a.
Peru is not one of the countries that is suffering of bad droughts due to the global warming., however the country is an urgent need of water. The country is known for the Andean mountains and glaciers, which have a huge importance for the country's water supplies and ecology. Peru has the largest number of tropical glaciers in the world and these water towers are crucial for slowly releasing water, particularly in the dry season. Peru desperately needs the water all year round. Al Gore's film about global warming "An Inconvenient Truth" revealed this side of the Peruvian water sheds and rang an alarm in that could not be ignored by to authorities. The capital of Peru, Lima is built in a desert and hardly ever recieves any rainfall. The city has a large deficit between  supply and demand. Most fo the people live in the Pacific coast with only 2% of the water supply on the country. Andes have the 98% of the water supply, but only quarter of the population live in the Andean mountains. Now this water flow in being treathened by the  global warmiang and the shrinking glaciers. (BBC News, 2007a)   


In Peru also 3,3 million people living in rural areas don't have access to potable water and 6,2 million people are lack of proper sanitation and water in their house holds. This is not so much because of the  lack of water, but due to the bad distribution of water. In the outskirts of Lima many people live in shantytowns, without proper housing or potable water. Most of the people living in these areas were forced to move from the "sierra", the Andean mountains due to the heavy terrorism in the 80's and 90's. In these areas people most  of the family's have a bucket of water to use for all together, just the tiny bit of the amount that we use in the daily basis. (BBC News, 2007b)  In the reasent years the Peruvian state has launched a programme to help this situation especially in the rural areas - "Agua para todos rural".  This programme is trying to decrease the effects of the bad water quality and lack of sanitation which causes illnesses and diarrhea for many people living in rural areas or shanty towns by creating better water distribution policies and by building a proper infrastructure for water distribution. The programme has been estimated to benefit about 34 993 people living in Lima, 39 640 people living in Amazonas, 65 759 living in Piura (among many other states or cities). (Agua para todos, 2010.)  



Zona I, Huaycán, Shanty town in Peru, Lima. Picture by Chascona 


The problems in the governmental development projects  often seem to be the top-down approach, the corruption,  the lack of knowledge by the policymakers to identify themselves with the populations that have got less opportunities. The politicians build stairways to facilitate people to climb up to the mountainous areas in shantytowns and big fuzz is made about the act.  But are the stairways really the most important thing that people need? Would it not be better to concentrate in creating jobs, giving quality education and empowering people? That way more opportunities would be created and people would have more influence on their own lives. Building stairways and expecting people to be grateful for that seems to be under-re-estimating people. A down-top or participatory approach would be necessary, as well as grass root empowerment so that people would feel that they have a say about their lives and that they can influence on their futures. It should be necessary also finally to start appreciating the native populations, since they are mostly excluded from the policy making. Does the country really not understand how much potential the people would have as long as indigenous populations and women would be better respected and empowered?      

Picture by: BBC News 2007b.











Sources: 


Pictures: 
  • Solidaarisuus, 2008. URL: http://solidaarisuus.fi/x43=25467 
  • BBC News, 2007a. Peru's Alarming water truth. URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6412351.stm
  • BBC Nws, 2007b. Perú: glaciares en peligro de extinción. URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/specials/2007/clima/newsid_7071000/7071780.stm

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