Clean Water in Haiti: A stepping stone to better community health

When it comes to community health, one of the most basic resources and needs to address is clean water. So many individuals, unfortunately, do not have access to clean drinking water in Haiti, which puts them at great risk for disease. 

Here are some global water statistics as stated by the CDC:

– 8 out of 10 people who continue to lack basic drinking water services live in rural areas

– 3.6 billion people, nearly half the world’s population, do not have access to safely managed sanitation in their home

– In rural settings, only 1 in 3 people have access to basic hygiene services

– Women and girls are more likely to be responsible for collecting water for their families. In 2017, women and girls were responsible for water collection in 8 out of 10 households without onsite water supply. These responsibilities make it difficult for girls to attend school during school hours.

Every year: 

– An estimated 446,000 children younger than 5 years die from diarrhea, mostly in low and middle-income countries. This amounts to 9% of the 5.8 million deaths of children younger than 5.

– There are 3 million cases of cholera and an estimated 95,000 cholera deaths.5

– There are 11 million cases of typhoid fever and an estimated 129,000 typhoid fever deaths.

– Universal access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and hygiene has the potential to reduce the global disease burden by 10%

– Every cholera case and death from cholera are preventable with the tools we have today

– Investing in water and sanitation interventions results in many benefits, including economic, environmental, quality of life, and health

 

Specific to Haiti, the World Bank states, “Today, more than half of the country’s rural population still lacks access to drinkable water, while only about one-third of Haitians have access to basic sanitation.”

Having access to clean water in Haiti is a key component for individuals and communities to achieve good health and stop preventable diseases. That is why LiveBeyond has spent significant resources to provide access to clean water in our target area. 

Too many people are dying from preventable diseases, and we will continue to work diligently in Haiti and Israel to help provide needed resources to combat this reality. If you would like to support LiveBeyond’s efforts, you can do so HERE. 

To learn more about our work, read more HERE.