As global powers debate ways to solve economic challenges, a more menacing fight is happening in East Africa, where the worst drought in decades has caused widespread hunger, deaths, and the loss of subsistence crops and livestock.
Even without drought conditions, 564 million and 326 million Africans, respectively, do not have access to improved sanitation or safe drinking water. Women are disproportionately affected because they spend hours fetching water or seeking sanitation facilities instead of in school or working. Lack of water and sanitation even accounts for excess mortality among girls in infancy and early childhood. Read more
Image: A women carries water in Woukpokpoe village, Benin. Photo © Arne Hoel/World Bank.
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