To the Editor:

Africa has a problem and its a big one. There is not a sufficient amount of water that is potable, or safe to drink. Potable water is essential for any living thing. People need water for washing, cooking, bathing, irrigating, and using the restroom. A human being needs about two liters of water a day just to survive. Water is the most essential resource on the planet and Africa doesnt have enough. This is a crisis!

The difficulty in Africa is caused by many things. First some parts of Africa dont have much water to begin with. Africa is home to the largest desert in the world, the Sahara, and also many smaller deserts, including the Kalahari and the Namib. The deserts are growing too, this is called desertification. Desertification happens for a variety of reasons. Africa is experiencing part of its desertification because of deforestation. Deforestation is when people cut down trees, which leaves the nutritive upper part of the soil to be blown away by the wind. Another reason Africa has a water shortage is livestock and humans bathe and use the restroom in otherwise semi-potable water sources. That is so nasty! All of these contribute to Africas water crisis.

All this unsanitary water causes a variety of other problems. When people drink unclean water they can be infected by a huge assortment of diseases. They can get cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis A, dysentery, or parasites, just to name a few. Another effect of the water crisis is children, particularly girls, spend hours getting water for school and home absolutely necessary. The time they spend getting water cuts down on the time they have for education. When children get a poor education, they dont have the skills to get a good occupation. When they dont get a good job they cant feed their families. When they cant provide for their families they die of starvation and or dehydration. According to WorldHunger.org, 276 million Africans are starving. When these people get older and have children, their children go through similar things. This happens because their children still have to fetch water for school and the water is still unsanitary. Many African children also have to stay home to take care of their parents or leave school altogether to take care of their siblings if their parents die. This is called the poverty cycle, it has a huge effect on many Africans.

My class and I worked on a possible solution. During the week of February tenth we worked with this solution. We made filters that can strain out many of the revolting things that are in Africas water…