Education, Medicine & Water Can Be Eliminated Poverty
Most developing countries are struggling with problems that hinder their development. One of the reasons that such a thing can happen is due to poverty. A country cannot develop as long as poverty still exists within itself. Through research, poverty usually occurs when a country lacks education, safe quality medicine, and clean water. Without education, the country does not have any means to keep the gears of innovation running. Citizens will find themselves struggling with diseases, thus lacking the good health to perform any task to help their nation if medicine supplies run short.
Finally, without clean water, there will be no solution to maintaining a healthy life for the people to reducing pollution. No one is opposed to helping people who are miserable whenever they have a chance. An Australian philosopher Peter Singer, who wrote in his article “The Singer Solution to Poverty” that it is possible to save a person who is not acquainted only by the urge of conscience. Singer says most people are willing to sacrifice a suit that is worth one thousand dollars to save a drowning child in a pool and he argues that the drowning child is no different from the nine million dying before five years old. There is no magical solution for ending poverty at once. However, the suffering of the people could be mitigated by providing them with adequate education, health care, and clean water.
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world", spoken by Nelson Mandela in his famous speech launch of Mindset Network. Undoubtedly, education is the most effective weapon to combat poverty. Unlike developed countries, citizens in poor nations always struggle to survive and take care of their loved ones. They wander on the street at the state of unemployment and homelessness. These factors are what made an individual who is already poor even worse. It's because the poor are unable to go out to the outside world, they don't have the chance to meet with the educated people or they don’t have opportunities to receive help to go to school.
Poverty makes people cannot fully realize their full potential. Without education, the poor cannot develop their ability and improve their productivity. In the era where people praise the role of education, there are still billions of people who do not have the basic needs such as a decent education, so they can increase their skill set and become part of the skilled labor force for their country. The most important thing that can be done is that the government should take steps to provide a better education for everyone in the country.
Fortunately, all the evidence shows that improving the quality of education is not impossible. A remarkable experiment in Israel shows that school is one of the best solutions for solving the education problem. In 1949, the poor Yemenites and their children were airlifted from the Addis Ababa area to Israel and were scattered across the country is essentially a random style. As a result, after 60 years, the analysis indicated that children who were placed in a more modern environment have higher education, marry at an older age, have fewer children, and work until age 55. It turns out that the most difficult circumstance of family or childhood living conditions can be offset if the conditions are. At least this is true at schools in Israel. Most of the problems of poverty can be solved if the population of the country can be constrained and not overpopulated.
Therefore, enrolling the girls in school is a fundamental step to put the idea to work. The mindset of women more education significantly reduces early pregnancy in comparison to less educated women, because educated women learn to marry later, know how to prevent pregnancy, and learns how to take care of their family, especially children. Educated women are more likely to enter the formal labor market with higher wages than in the informal sector associated with subsistence wages. For instance, in Guinea, educated women are less likely to work in domestic or informal sectors that paying maintenance wages. Having a better education gives women a clear global vision of society, they will have opportunities in higher earnings and the understanding of the importance of good health.
Similar to the field of education, the health sector should be made more proactive. As we know, most of the poor people are living in the remote areas. It is very difficult to approach them due to the poor road conditions, especially when they urgently need medication. Because the road infrastructure is such a big barrier to bring medication to the poor in emergency situations. According to the World Health Organization "globally, 50% of children under five who die of pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria are in Africa.", without access to medicines, millions of people could die every year.
To solve this problem, the government should implement a program that uses a flying drone to deliver the medicine to any remote areas. In the article "Zipline's Second-gen Drones Speed its Medical Delivery Business", Mr. Shankland stated, "The delivery drones can deliver medical supplies quickly up to 50 miles away when roads are flooded or clinics are on an island". Indeed, transportation plays an important role in improving the healthcare for citizens. With this method, we can reduce the mortality rate, also help to improve better health care for the citizens. Before, people living in remote areas have a hard time to access better healthcare due to distance, time, and location.
This method will not only reform the outdated healthcare system in developing countries but also give poor people a chance to escape poverty and greatly advance the society as a whole. Counterfeit medicines are also a big factor in spreading lack of medicines epidemic to the poor. Combat against these fake products is important. First, regular medicines' cost is too expensive that people in the remote area cannot afford it. Second, regular medicines are not available to certain areas in the country especially in remote area. Hence, people have no opportunities to purchase quality medicines and decide to buy cheaper drugs seem like a possible choice.
However, fake products are ineffective and might be harmful to people who are using it. Hiiti Sillo, the director general of the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority stated that "Counterfeit medicines are silent murder", in his article “Silent Murder”. As technology advances through research and development, there are several ways to prevent fake medicines. According to the article "Counterfeit Fake Drugs New Technologies to Identify it in India", the idea is to utilize the barcode printed on medicines package or vial to verify the authenticity of the drug by entering the code into an internet site or via SMS (Singhal).
The article "3D bar-codes target counterfeit drugs and devices" shows that one way to make this method work is to begin to use "The 3D barcode system, Dr. Brown added, could also help address the problem in other industries - including food, electronics, medical implants, and motor vehicles” (Jonathan Webb). Indeed, implementing such security system onto the medicines will reduce the amount of fake medicines the poor will purchase. The idea can only work when both the government and local doctors collaborate and put the barcode system to work. The government should set up a facility or department to take care of installation of the barcode onto the medicine package. The local doctors and nurses should receive a training course in handling barcoded medicines, especially on distribution to the people.
This method is hard to begin, but once it is initialized, we can see the developing countries change for the best. Clean water is one of the main basic needs in keeping a healthy lifestyle and environment. Human's body can survive without one to two weeks without food, but only two to three days without water. Lack of clean water has a direct negative effect on the development of a country. "A decrease in the amount of water available for use holds devastating environmental, health, and economic consequences that disrupt a country's social and economic growth" said by Amir Dakkak in his article "Water Pollution Worries in Developing Countries".
Clean water shortage can happen for many reasons, but most notable reason is water pollution. This problem of water pollution is the leading factor that is keeping people from getting clean water. "Unsafe water, lack of sanitation facilities and poor hygiene are the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in developing countries" (Amir Dakkak). Contaminated water contains so many harmful bacteria and diseases that have the ability to put a healthy human into an ill state. Without clean water, a human body cannot function properly, thus it will hinder their ability to perform any duties such as work and study. A country without a healthy workforce who are capable of working will not be able to endure the ever-changing face of economic growth. But it's not entirely hopeless, nowadays the world is seeing itself grow with many technological advancements and new scientific solutions.
Resolving the clean water problem is not a pipe dream no longer. Recycling water is a viable solution to this problem. One of the ways to do this is by setting up the facility to recycle water in rivers or lakes near populated areas. Considering that most developing countries survive on natural water instead of processed water, having several stations installed around the main water source of the resident will keep the water purification process stable and aid in preventing water pollution. "But the future here may be even drier than the past, so water recycling is more important than ever" said by Daniel Gross in his article "Recycling Sewage into Drinking Water is No Big Deal, They've Been Doing It in Namibia for 50 years", the question is that do we are really paying attention to water problems? If so, what can we do to ensure that there is enough clean water for everyone in the future?
Water recycling is a necessary first step to change the problem. With the implementation of technology into these facilities, clean water will be usable soon enough and ready to deliver to all the residents in the country. To effectively solve one problem, one method is not always enough. Water comes from many sources; another less costly solution is to filter stored rainwater. Rainwater is one of the main source of water in many countries and also the source of water for many seafarers back in the day. But with the pollution overtaking the environment in the current modern age, it's harder to gather clean water from the rain.
Because of that, the government should set up purification stations to filter rainwater and make it drinkable. There should be three to four stages of filtering rainwater to be able to before distributing it for the residents to use. According to the article "In the World: How rainwater can meet clean-water needs" by David Chandler, he said, "A study of the local hydrology and geology showed that rainwater harvesting was the only viable option to improve the water supply". Indeed, it is the most viable option to not only improve water supply but also is the main factor to combat the lack of water.
In conclusion, for developing countries to be able to improve and advance, they need to improve their education, medicine quality and clean water shortage. Although these are only some and not all factors that makes up poverty, these factors are what will help alleviate the major issues in poverty. With education, people can act with reason and thus develop their nation for better advancement. Eliminate lack of safe quality medicines will heal the country’s workforce, thus allowing economic growth. Lastly, improving in the amount of clean water will not only help fight the disease for the people but also help nurture the environment and the economy. Overall, these improvements are the core important methods to for improving the country and for fighting poverty.
