Israel Africa | Business Guide | 2020

The result is growth in imports so developing country get poorer. Hygiene is another issue in Africa. In some cities in Uganda, rain causes drainage to overflow, flooding streets and houses with sewage water. According to UN reports, access to hygienic toilets is an urgent problem for 2 . 5 billion people in the continent, exposing them to diseases like as cholera. Even affluent Africans are not protected from related infections: when the drainage systemonly serves some of the population, the rain will spread the damage and sewer leakage will do the rest. In 2018 , 23 % of the African people had no access to a toilet, and a third of the rest use toilets without proper sewage. Technological solutions to this problem seemsimple but these cost money to the populace. Else, the government needs to invest inbetter infrastructure. When governments cannot afford Drought, water pollution, access to hygienic toilets are issues African residents have lived with for many decades. New Israeli technologies are starting to - drop by drop - make life easier and safer for Africans By Noam Eliyah M any generations have passed sincethetimeswhenthe rivers flowing through Africa were making it fruitful and helping feed one of theworld's ancient cultures. Already dry and subject to deforestation and ecological exploitation, over the last 20 years 66 %of Africa is considered arid; large parts of the Continent together with theMiddle East and neighboring regions are suffering from severe drought. As lesser amounts of rain cause the earth to becomemore saline and dry, these areas aremore exposed to drought and are harder to use for agriculture. Countries like Algeria are already in this situation, and others like Nigeria and Ethiopia are getting closer to it. On top of that, rapidpopulationgrowth and urbanization raise the demand for water. In 2018 , over 300 million Africans suffered fromwater shortage. Experts say that by 2050 , over 86 million African people, especially in countries like Ethiopia or Kenya, will have tomigrate – or suffer severe food shortages or even starvation – due to lack of clean water resources. In other places such as Congo, water is not scarce – only too expensive. Residents of distant villages have to go many kilometers to fetch water, sometimes exposing themselves to militias that re-sell thewater to them for a higher price. To thiswe should add global warming as a super-catalyser of most of the above-mentioned problems: areas drying out, desertification, draining and poor quality of the agricultural land combined with an accelerated populationgrowth, has already started to echo in the rest of the world in phenomena like migration waves. Drought has, of course, direct effect on food prices aswell: corn, potatoes, or kettle meat double up in price. Better Technologies for Better Water Israel Africa > Business Guide > 2020 32 > Sector Review > Water Technologies