POVERTY=WATER CRISIS

I admit that the initial impression I had on this topic was that it was going to be centred on water conservation and supply issues; sanitation, health education, poverty never really registered. Moreover, the relationship between scarcity and poverty seemed to me distances apart.

Water is an essential necessity for every living organism; I believe that solving the water crisis is key solving poverty & ultimately realising the millennium development goals (provided we add 5 more years).

Furthermore, I believe a holistic approach is need if we want to effectively solve the problem. By holistic am referring to an approach were the communities affected are involved on every aspect of the project from the word go, also sanitation as well as health education are a top priority. This will also mean that the community is also involved in financing (a portion of) the project, if they are not able to pay with currency, they can do so in sweat equity ,also maintaining of the water supply shall be the responsibility of the community & were necessary assistance from a local partner can be brought in .

Basically, such an approach I believe will have the community having a sense of ownership in the project unlike a situation where people seek handout (& in most cases continue to dependent on handouts); when the community sees their effort pay dividends ,a psychological “empowerment” is established & possibly that might lead to an end to poverty.