OVERVIEW
Chad is a landlocked country in Central Africa, with a population of 14.45 million people. In the north, it borders Libya. North Sudan and South Sudan are to the east, Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west. Chad became an independent country from France on 11 August 1960, but its main languages still remain Arabic and French. It has 23 regions, N’Djamena being the capital, and has a presidential republic government style. Countries are measured in wellbeing factors, such as GDP. GDP is the Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a period of time. In Chad, it’s GDP is 9.601 billion USD, as of 2016. 38% of the population lives off of less than $1.90 USD a day. Life expectancy is the measure of time a person is supposed to live.
In Chad, the average life span of a male is 53, whereas females will live until the age of 54, and the total life expectancy , which is the lowest rate in Africa. According to the latest WHO data, published in 2017, influenza and pneumonia deaths in Chad reached 28,374 or 17.21% of total deaths. In 2016, the death rate in Chad was 13 per 1,000 people, which dropped significantly from 26.5 people in 1960. Infant mortality rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 live births of children under one year of age, where in Chad, the rate of infant deaths is 79.8 every 1,000 live births. To the left is a map of Africa, regarding the trends of literacy rates. Literacy rates are the amount of people over the age of 15 who are able to read and write in a persons country of origin. In Chad, 13.96% of the female population can read and write which strongly juxtaposes the high rate of 40.69% of the male population. As seen in the map, Chad’s rate of literacy in 15 – 24 years olds is increasing, meaning that education will improve in the near future. Although attendance is compulsory, only 68% of boys in Chad continue their education past primary school, resulting in over 50% of the population is illiterate.
The rate of unemployment in Chad as of December 2017 is at 5.89%, as seen in the graph above. This increased from 5.78% in 2016. Unemployment Rate in Chad averaged 5.73% from 1991 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 6.03% in 2004 and a record low of 5.57 in 1993. On January 15, 2010, a rapprochement agreement was signed by Chad and Sudan, which signified the end of a five-year proxy war. This caused unemployment rates to increase in that year, which can be seen in the graph.
WATER AND SANITATION IN CHAD
In the world, there are 7.6 billion people, and 844 million of these people don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water, which is more than 11% of the population. Chad has one of the lowest rates of access to safe drinking water and sanitation services in the world. While access to safe water and sanitation is improving in urban areas, children in rural areas are almost always at risk from these water and sanitation-related diseases.
Due to the Swiss Cooperation making a massive contribution to the communities of Chad, more than 55,000 people have now access to safe water in the districts of Yao and Danemadji in Central and Southern Chad. UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) has built more than 110 water points in the two districts and the Community-led total sanitation stationed in more than 260 villages. Yao and Danemdaji are among the country’s districts with the lowest access to WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services. Only 1 in 10 people have access to clean water in Danemadji and 3 in 10 in Yao. Less than 7% of people have access to adequate sanitation in both districts.
In 2017, UNICEF partnered with the Secours Islamique France to build wells around N’djamena for the poor communities. These wells are much cleaner than the existing wells, as they are 60m deep, far deeper than the other wells, ultimately providing the communities with clean and safer water to drink and bathe in, because it comes from closer to the centre of the earth.
The chairman of the water committee in the Dar Salam quartier, Mohammed Mohammezen Duma, says that the neighbourhood has become much healthier after being granted access to clean water. “People in this quartier keep telling us stories about how they always used to get diarrhoea and how they used to get cholera, but since [the water pumps have been] installed, there hasn't been one case of cholera here,” Mr. Duma said.
This is Vivianne. She is a 9 year old girl living in Chad. She is in year 4, and her favourite subject is ‘number counting’. She was born on the 10th of October in 2008, and is constantly running errands around the house as her chores. She loves playing board games with her brother and 2 sisters. “This region is among the poorest in Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world. Safe drinking water is scarce, made worse by frequent flooding in the area. Preventable diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera are common. Farmers cannot grow enough food for their families and many children are malnourished. HIV and AIDS related illnesses are common in the community. Health centres are inadequate and poorly equipped. There is a severe shortage of schools and qualified teachers. Many children cannot afford their education and leave school before it is completed.” Vivianne says.
EFFECT ON WELLBEING FACTORS
Wellbeing factors give a brief overview of a country’s health, economically and physically. As resources become limited and the population of Chad increases, the basic right of safe water and sufficient sanitation is in high demand, as only 55,000 people have access to clean water. Without it, many wellbeing factors are impacted, such as literacy rates and life expectancy.
Without safe drinking water as the population grows, more sickness and disease are likely to occur, severely impacting the life expectancy. These diseases are causing the age a person will live to, to decrease. The water and sanitation situation impact this because illnesses occur at a younger age, shortening a person’s life span. Literacy rates also come as a cost to poor water standards. As children are dying at a younger age, not enough are finishing school to increase the literacy rates that are already low. This is also due to the high amounts of children dropping out of school to work for their families, to gather food and crops to supply for the family.
Safe water supplies, hygienic sanitation and good water management are fundamental to global health. Almost one tenth of global disease could be reduced with the help of clean water and healthy sanitation and hygiene. Around the world in one year, safer water could prevent 1.4 million child deaths from diarrhoea; 500,000 deaths from malaria; 860,000 child deaths from malnutrition; and 280,000 deaths from drowning.
Non-government and NGO responses
FUTURE IMPLICATIONS
Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a basic human right that not everyone has access to. Chad is a very unfortunate country which has one of the worst rates of clean water in world, where roughly 38% of their population don’t have access to clean water.
The chance of achieving clean drinking water around the world is a difficult task, but its not impossible. It is vital change that needs occur to provide a better future for others.
Efforts to improve water, sanitation and hygiene interact with each other to boost overall health. Access to sanitation, such as simple latrines in communities, prevents drinking water contamination from human waste and reduces infections. High-tech public health measures are not necessarily the best: frequent hand-washing with soap and safe storage of drinking water are high-impact practices.