Page - 6 - in Clean Water Using Solar and Wind - Outside the Power Grid

6 Clean Water Using Solar and Wind: Outside the Power Grid • Water scarcity already affects four out of every ten people (WHO); • 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused (UNESCO, 2017). It is obvious that water supply and used water treatment need to be addressed simultaneously. 1.3 ACCESS TO ELECTRIC ENERGY Today around 1,000 million people around the world lack electric power that could enable them to light their homes, cook their food or pump clean water (Jones & Olsson, 2017). Most of them live in rural areas of Africa and developing Asia. Another 1,000 million have unreliable electric power supplies (IEA, 2011). Furthermore, more than three billion rely on solid fuels and kerosene for access to cooking and heating (World Bank, 2017). The indoor and outdoor air pollution from burning wood and other biomass causes more than four million deaths each year. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, there are about 600 million people without access to electric power, around 57% of the population. Some 80% of these people live in rural areas. Less than 25% of the rural population have electric power. As a comparison 71% of urban residents in these countries have electricity (IEA, 2017b). Like lack of clean water, lack of electricity handcuffs poor families to poverty – especially women and girls, who must gather fuel and carry out the household chores. The good news, however, is that electrification efforts have accelerated so that electric power addition since 2014 is higher than the population growth. The IEA (International Energy Agency) definition of access to electricity is at the household level and includes a minimum level of electricity consumption, ranging from 250 kWh per household per year in rural areas to 500 kWh in urban settings. The electricity supplied must be Around 1,000 million people lack electric power. Another 1,000 million have unreliable electric power supply. More than 650 million people lack clean water. Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/520710/wio9781780409443.pdf by IWA Publishing user