Dirty water issues are a very big problem for many families living in Somalia today because many people do not have clean pipes or wells. Most of the people in the countryside and even in the big camps near Mogadishu have to drink from open ponds or old rivers. This is how the dirty water issues start to make everyone sick with things like cholera and diarrhea which are very dangerous for small kids. When the rain comes it washes all the waste into the drinking spots and this makes the water look brown and smell very bad but people have no other choice but to drink it.
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Why are dirty water issues still killing so many people?
The main reason for the dirty water issues is that the country does not have enough big stations to clean the water for the public. Many years of war destroyed the old pipes and now nobody is fixing them in the small towns. When we look at the dirty water issues we see that hospitals are full of people who just drank a glass of water that was not boiled properly. Doctors say that if people could just get clean water most of the diseases in Somalia would disappear very fast. But the cost of buying bottled water is too much for a normal father who works in the market.
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Another side of the dirty water issues is that many schools do not have toilets or sinks for the students to wash their hands. This means when one child gets sick from the water he gives it to all the other children in the class very quickly. The government is trying to work with some groups from outside to dig deep wells that reach the clean water under the ground. If they can finish these wells the dirty water issues will start to go away slowly but it takes a lot of money and time. Some people use small tablets to clean their water but not everyone knows how to use them or where to buy them.
The dirty water issues also get worse during the droughts when the rivers dry up and only the mud is left at the bottom. Animals and people all use the same small holes for water and this is a disaster for health. By solving the dirty water issues the government can save a lot of money that they spend on medicine and doctors. It is much cheaper to give people clean water than to treat them after they get a very bad fever or stomach pain. Many mothers are now trying to learn about boiling water at home to help their babies stay strong against the dirty water issues.
The weather is also changing and this makes the dirty water issues harder to predict for the farmers. Sometimes there is a big flood that ruins the clean wells and mixes everything with dirt and trash. We need more education for the people living in the villages so they understand that clear water is not always safe water. Even if it looks clean it can have tiny bugs that cause the dirty water issues in the body. If the youth learn about hygiene in school they can go home and teach their parents how to stay safe from the germs.
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The dirty water issues are something that everyone needs to fight together from the city to the desert. The leaders must make sure that the money for water projects is used correctly to build real infrastructure for the future. If Somalia can fix the dirty water issues then the next generation will grow up much healthier and stronger. It is a basic human right to have a clean drink and we hope that soon every house in the country has a tap with safe water. The fight against dirty water issues is a fight for the life of the whole nation.
