The Inverse Osmosis Process As A Solution To Poverty And Famine In Africa

The inverse osmosis process as a solution to poverty and famine in Africa

The issue of poverty and hunger is not something new or exclusive to today.

It is true that there are currently more areas and people who suffer a state of extreme poverty and famine. For this reason there is more and more interest on the part of governments, developed countries, and the numbering NGOs in fighting poverty and trying to eradicate it.

According to Oxfam Intermón data.Org, “Poverty is an epidemic that affects millions of people on our planet. In the world, 1400 million people suffer from extreme poverty and almost 900 million suffer hunger, they do not have access to drinking water and other basic services such as health and education."

Likewise, the United Nations indicates that "there are 836 million people who continue to live in extreme poverty". But poverty does not happen equally in all areas of the world. An area to highlight is the so -called "the horn of Africa", located in the East Africa region, which includes the countries of Somalia, Yibuti, Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is also important to address the issue, to know the meaning of famine and the causes that can lead to an area to suffer a situation of poverty. Thus, we can define famine as “food shortage, a situation that causes malnutrition paintings and an increase in hunger mortality. Hungry can occur due to mass poverty, wars or natural catastrophes."

Another factor to take into account in the territorial scope that we are taking as an example (horn of Africa) is drought.

Namely; Climate change is leading to it to increase it considerably, motivating that any type of crop be impossible in this region. Faced with this problem, and looking for a solution for this, we focus on the question presented in the statement: could we end the horn famine of Africa if sea water was used?

Taking into account the development of science and technological advances, I think that the horn famine of Africa could end if the water desalination process was used, since it would allow sea water to be potable. Before seeing the different processes that are carried out on water for water treatment, we must take into account the concept of desalination. According to action.com, "the desalination or desalination of water consists of a water treatment process by which the water of the sea or brackish water becomes drinking water to be able to supply the population". There are numerous methods of performing this process, among them we can mention: reverse osmosis, distillation, freezing, lightning evaporation, hydrates and electrodialysis formation.

Of all of them, the most widespread and advanced process worldwide is the reverse osmosis, therefore I think that applying this process, drinking water could be obtained that helped reduce drought in the horn of Africa and with it, poverty and poverty and famine in that area. Inverse osmosis according to action.com, “It consists of applying pressure on salt water and making it pass through a semipermeable membrane whose function is to allow the passage of water (solvent) but not mineral salts (solute). Water crosses the membrane from the side with greater concentration to the side with less concentration. The process is carried out thanks to the energy contribution in the form of pressure ”. Having the water purified, it would create a system of pipes and channels with which to transport it to the affected areas, in which storage tanks would be placed where the water would be stored. Being able to carry out this project, various benefits could be obtained, but it would also lead to inconveniences.

The benefits would be:

• Drought reduction: the land would be irrigated and food cultivation (subsistence agriculture) would be possible. This would help reduce famine.
• HEALTH IMPROVEMENT: It would contribute to the health of the population to improve, since they could drink drinking water instead of contaminated water.
• Better quality of life: a little better would be lived

However, the economic inconvenience is generated: a large amount of money would be needed to build the desalination plants, transport channels and reserve tanks.

In conclusion, I think it is essential that although the action of man influences the increase in poverty and famine in the world, due to wars, acts that affect climate change and drought, … also the human being has ability to fight and mitigate this poverty and famine due to great scientific advances.