of Egypt and Sudan. In Australia, states have also argued over the Murray–Darling Basin. What happens upstream in a catchment can affect water quality and supply downstream.
FIGURE13 The construction in Ethiopia of Africa’s biggest dam has caused regional conflict.
Some countries make agreements to share water from rivers, like the Rhine, Danube, Ganges and Brahmaputra. 9.7.8 How can water-borne diseases be reduced? Just having access to water doesn’t mean it’s clean. Dirty water can make people sick and cause many illnesses. Each year, around 315 000 young children die from diseases like cholera, typhoid and dysentery, which spread through dirty water. An additional one million people die from malaria, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes. People clean water in different ways, like boiling it, using cloths or adding bleach. Some people don’t clean their water at all. Groups like Water.org and The Water Project work to make clean water available and teach people how to stay healthy.
FIGURE14 Collecting water that is unsafe to drink
FIGURE15 The Citarum River in Indonesia is one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
288 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 7 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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