What Consequences?

 This week I thought I would look at the consequences of the water and food crises in Africa. Aside from the discomfort of hunger, a lack of food poses a huge threat to the African population. No demographic is affected more than young children under the age of 5, according to UNICEF. Globally, 1 in 3 malnourished children are living in Sub Saharan Africa (Akombi et al., 2017). Furthermore, data from 2011 shows that 1/3 of African children under the age of 5 were stunted. The World Health Organisation defines stunting as “low height-for-age” which reflects a process of failure to reach linear growth potential as a result of poor nutrition. The map below, produced by UNICEF, shows the distribution of stunting across Africa. It is most prevalent in the Eastern Cape, where 42% of children are shorter than they should be for their age.

One of the highest statistics in not just the Eastern Cape but the whole continent, an excess of 40% of children of all ages in Tanzania are stunted. The below image shows the shocking difference in height between the children in Tanzania and the average 9-year-old in the UK. On Bill Gates’ personal blog, he wrote a piece about one of his many visits to Africa. He says that he was shocked to learn that the ‘young’ children he was meeting were actually teenagers- he thought that they were 7 years old. I knew that stunting occurred across Africa due to malnutrition, but I had no idea just how severe it was.

The Western Cape has the second highest prevalence of stunted growth. I would like to suggest here that this could draw links with the high numbers of droughts in the region. The physical water scarcity and consequent food crisis is an enabler of stunted growth in young children.

Wasting is another consequence of lack of food. Per the WHO, wasting usually indicates severe weight loss, which is often associated with acute starvation and/or severe disease. On their scale, a prevalence of wasting which is greater than 5% is what they describe as alarming. On the severity index, a prevalence between 10-14% is classed as serious. If the rate exceeds 15% it is said to be critical. Again, showing how badly affected children aged 1 to 5 are, the prevalence of low weight-for-height peaks in two-year-olds across the continent.

Akombi et al. include in their paper a chapter on policies that they believe would reduce the prominence of stunted growth and malnutrition. Their suggestions are as follows:

• ·      Increasing female education
• ·      Campaigns to promote increased sanitation and personal hygiene
• ·      Increasing business acumen amongst young women, to reduce poverty and increase access to food
• ·      Teaching mothers the importance of breastfeeding

The latter, teaching mothers the importance of breastfeeding, is something which UNICEF has done countless studies on. Correlating with the high proportion of stunted children in West Africa (38%) their research shows that in 1995, only 1% of babies in Nigeria were breastfed. Even in 2011, the figure had only risen to 13%. In the southern parts of Africa, where stunting is slightly lower (36%), breastfeeding rates are higher. In Zambia, 19% of babies were breastfed in 1995, and by 2011 this had risen to 61%. Breastfeeding is a practice that is often dismissed in western society, but in poor countries where there is a lack of clean water and sufficient food, it is crucial for babies and young infants to get their nutrients in this way. Not only this, but breastfeeding transfers antibodies from mother to baby, increasing the immunity of young babies from infectious diseases. Cognitive development is also a benefit of breastfeeding, something which is reduced by poor nutrition.

None of their recommendations for reducing malnutrition involved farming practices. As per my previous posts there are now a multitude of ways to grow crops in less than favourable conditions, such as mushroom cultivation and the use of GM seeds. However, the paper does not mention a lack of food growth due to water scarcity. This could suggest that the authors think that the food crisis in Africa is more political than physical. I have to say, when I started this blog I was convinced from all the adverts on the TV that the main reason for food shortages in Africa was widespread drought. The more I read around the subject the more I agree that it is largely a political issue.