"Africa is mismanaging water resources," scientists say at conference; BBC examines effect of Kenya's drought on kids

Aug 29 2009

"Africa is mismanaging its water resources," according to scientists who are in Kenya at the Sustainable Water Conference, which is organized by the Pan Africa Chemistry Network, VOA News reports. "The scientists at the water conference warned Africa's leaders that water scarcity is a cause of not just hunger and thirst but also the spread of disease, the death of wildlife, and shortages in power," the news service writes.

David Osborne, a representative from the U.N. environmental agency UNEP, said Africa's water problems are avoidable. "Too many of the adults and children who die from too little water in droughts, too much water in floods, or too polluted or disease-ridden water are in Africa," he said. "Yet the saddest fact is that most of their deaths are preventable."

"The calls from the scientists for better water usage models is magnified by the alarming situation outside the conference's walls, where the city of Nairobi is reeling under the country's severe water shortage," writes VOA News. Kenya's permanent secretary for the Ministry of Higher Learning, Science and Technology, Crispus Kiamba, acknowledged that human activities played a role in the country's water shortage. "Some of our rivers have dried up due to a combination of climate change effect and human destruction," he said (Boswell, 8/26).

BBC Examines Free School Meals In Kenya

The BBC examines the effect of Kenya's drought and food shortages on school children. Some children are attending lessons during the August break so they can get a free meal at school. The U.N. is feeding more than one million Kenyan school children, according to the BBC. "For some of them this is the only meal they will get all day," said Rose Ogola, of the World Food Programme. The article includes accounts of how people are dealing with high food prices (Ross, 8/27).