Climate change has a significant impact on the planet’s water resources. If nothing is done to reduce the effects of global warming, it will be disastrous, especially for the world’s poorest people.
Here are some cases where poverty is linked to the lack of access to water:
The impact of Climate Change on the planet’s water resources
Credit: Tomás Abella/OxfamEthiopian farmer Abraha Tarraken, 69 years old, works his land. Fear of hunger still haunts Ethiopian farmers as the drought has left sterile grass. As a result, the livelihoods of most of the population are in jeopardy as they are unable to grow crops or raise and feed their livestock.
Credit: Tomás Abella/OxfamAbraha Tarraken's wife fills a container with water from a pond, in Tigray, Ethiopia. Some 30 million people of 70 million in Ethiopia live in extreme poverty.
Ethiopia is the worst country in the world for access to water: only 25 per cent of people can access clean and safe water.
Credit: Fernando Marín/OxfamAmetta Pierre's house in Haiti was destroyed by Hurricane Dean. Disastrous consequences left by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav included thousands of deaths and people displaced without homes.
Credit: Fernando Marín/OxfamHaiti is one of the poorest countries in the world with over 54 per cent of the population without access to potable water, an infant mortality rate of 71 per thousand children born and an illiteracy rate of more than 50 percent. In the city of Gonaive (pictured), there are still 4,700 wells with non-potable water, as a result of last year's storms.
Credit: Ricardo Landetta/OxfamThe possibilities for water shortages are alarming in the context of global warming. The Panel on Climate Change United Nations warns that water sources in the Andean countries are at great risk of facing the accelerated decline in the volume of the Andean glaciers.
Credit: Ricardo Landetta/OxfamThe allocation of water in Ecuador suffers from large inequity. The non-recognition of the right of rural communities and indigenous people to access,
management, social control and equitable distribution of water has caused situations of conflict known as "water war" - people struggling over resources - an example which took place in Cochabamba (Bolivia) between January and April 2000.
Credit: Nahuel Arenas/OxfamIn Mozambique, torrential rains and water contamination triggered a cholera epidemic in August 2009, which is continuing and spreading over all of the the poorest regions of that country. Cuamba, in the north of the country, is the most affected.
Credit: Nahuel Arenas/OxfamNearly 50,000 people, half of Cuamba’s population, are sick due to cholera. Water shortages force most people to search for water in the nearest river, where the risk of contamination is higher.
Credit: Antonia Ureña/OxfamParaguay’s region called El Chaco has been suffering from a drought since August 2008 which is in large part affecting the indigenous community. Nearly 10,000 people (2,000 families) are suffering from water shortages and haven’t had rain over the past 8 months, forcing them to impose strict limitations on water consumption and crop irrigation.
Credit: Antonia Ureña/OxfamDue to the lack of rain, there are no lakes from which animals can drink water, the same animals that the indigenous people hunt for food. The indigenous communities have to move and leave their land in search of others with animals in order to feed themselves.
