WATER RELATED DISEASES, PREVENTION & CONTROL
About one-third of the nearly 1 billion people of Africa do not have access to clean, disease-free water. The chances are bleak, as acknowledged by WHO and UNICEF, that the Target 10 objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be achieved to “halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation”. This disadvantage is further compounded by water-related diseases that ravage the continent’s hardest-hit victims who are predominantly women and children.
Despite some efforts by national African governments and the international community, several parts of Africa are still ravaged by Cholera, Typhoid, Hepatitis A, Dysentery, Diarrheas, Scabies, Trachoma, Filariasis, and the Dengue, Malaria, and Yellow fevers. According to estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), 80 percent of all disease in the world can traced to unsafe water and poor hygiene, especially in the rural Africa. According to 2006 estimates from the World Health Organization and UNICEF, only 31 % of Sub-Saharan Africa has “improved” sanitation coverage.
Annually, more than 3.4 million people die from water-related diseases, according to figures from the World Health Organization, and is thus the leading cause of disease and death around the world.
BEES is a member of some non-profit organization for the prevention and control of water related diseases. We are associated with organizations dedicated to assist communities and governments in Africa and sponsor conferences, seminars, workshops, and other forums for training and education among the various sectors of the population (including health workers, food vendors, and open-market vendors), who we consider critical in the prevention and control of water-related diseases.