World attention has recently been focused on the water crisis facing the South African city of Cape Town, a metropolis of four million people. There is obviously deep sympathy with the plight of the residents. But the drama draws attention away from an even more concerning set of issues. The main one is that many people in rural southern Africa live without any potable water at all. And many are at serious risk because of global climate change.
Residents of the wealthy suburbs of Cape Town have been asked to reduce their consumption to less than 50 litres per person per day, one sixth of the daily consumption of the average American. But elsewhere in village after village in sub-Saharan Africa women walk miles to scoop water from polluted ground wells for their average daily ration of less than 20 litres a day.
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