Water Wars: Ethiopia and Kenya
Notable Entry, Interactive Narratives. 2008 Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.
Pulitzer Gateway: Water Wars
Visit the interactive Water Wars Web Portal, sponsored by the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting.
Kibera: Not a Drop to Drink
The long rainy season in Kenya has begun and sudden storms regularly burst over Nairobi. Many welcome the downpours, which signal the end of another dry summer and wash the steamy crowded capital clean each morning.
As featured in Women's eNews, 1h2o.org, and Living on Earth. Produced in association with the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting.
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Country Fact Sheets from the CLP
Because we believe that good journalism must be contextualized, we've decided to share with our readers some of the more interesting and lesser known facts about the countries we've reported on. While these are in no way comprehensive descriptions of these complex places, this is the information that we've found most helpful in placing these countries in a global framework and underscoring the broader implications of the issues we've covered. In developing these Fact Sheets, we've worked to incorporate both the official facts and statistics reported by government sources as well as our own observations through reporting in each country. If you have any suggestions or requests for information you'd like to see included, write to us at info@clpmag.org
India
The world's largest democracy, India is a strikingly diverse country, crowded with countless ethnic groups, languages and religions. India is a politically young country with an ancient cultural tradition. Fraught with poverty and social problems, it is also blessed with an incredible civil sector of creative individuals and NGOs. While much has been made of India's technology sector, cosmopolitan cities, and growing middle class, the vast majority of the population live in poverty in rural areas.
Size: Roughly the size of the United States east of the Mississippi.
Population: About 1 billion. At current rates the population will grow to 1.5 billion within 30 years.
Languages Spoken: India has 23 official languages, with Hindi and English serving as the major lingua francas. There are an estimated 1,652 dialects spoken throughout the country.
Type of Government: Parliamentary Democracy. State governments are highly independent, making for a diversity of political environments throughout the country. For example, the government in the southern state of Kerala is socialist, while that of the northern state of Bihar closely resembles a feudal system. At the national level the Hindu Nationalist BJP lost power to the more moderate Congress Party in 2004. Voter turnout for that election was about 60%, comparable to turnout in the US's 2004 Presidential election. India ranks low on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, coming in at number 88 out of 158, a rank it shares with Armenia, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Gabon, Iran, Mali, Moldova, and Tanzania.
Religion: Within India's 80% Hindu population there are millions of sects, whose practices, beliefs and levels of orthodoxy vary widely. Though India's Muslims make up only 13% of the population, the country is home to one of the largest populations of Muslims in the world. Other significant religious groups include Christians (2.3%) and Sikhs (1.9%) - including current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There are also Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Bahais, and believers in tribal animist religions. While ethnic tensions between Muslims and Hindus have sometimes erupted in violence and the two groups live largely segregated from each other, recent years have seen a decline in conflicts.
Gender and Health Issues: Sixty percent of India's population is literate; the rate falls to just under 50% for the female population. Abortion is legal, and 43% of women of childbearing age use a modern method of contraception. Maternal mortality is high, with 540 deaths per 100,000 births - 31 times that of the United States. HIV and AIDS prevalence among the adult population is reported at 0.9% - one and a half times that of the United States. Life expectancy is 64 years.
Environment and Resources:The number one environmental and resource issue in India is its vast and growing population, an influence that stretches to every conceivable area, from air and water pollution - tap water is not potable throughout the country - to soil erosion and desertification.
GDP: $3.6 trillion
International Aid Received:$2.9 billion
Receives US Counterterrorism Assistance: Yes
Death Penalty: In use for ordinary crimes
Top Five Industries: Textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment (note that while India's service and software industries often make the news, they don't make this top five)
Poverty Rate: 25% of the population lives below the official poverty line. The official poverty line is based on a minimum amount of calories necessary for survival. When converted to a dollar amount the line is defined between 7 and 10 dollars per person, per month.
McDonald's Restaurants: Since 1996 (note that the majority of India's population is vegetarian)
Currency: Indian Rupee - about 45 to the dollar.
Media: India ranks almost at the bottom - 106th out of 167 - on the Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index. Five percent of the population are internet users.
Posted: 2006
Country Fact Sheet Sources
- General Statistics - CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
- Abortion Legal Status, Maternal Mortality, Infant Mortality, Contraception: http://www.medicationabortion.com
- Abortion Legal Status: http://www.crlp.org/pub_fac_abortion_laws.htm
- Contraceptive Use: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/contraceptive2005/WCU2005.htm
- Maternal Mortality: http://www.childinfo.org/areas/maternalmortality/countrydata.php
- McDonald’s Country List: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_McDonald%27s_franchises
- Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19388
- The Economist Intelligence Unit Quality of Life Index: http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf
- Human Development Index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index
- 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index: www.yale.edu/esi/
- General Statistics - World Atlas: http://www.geographyiq.com
- Counterterrorism Funding Information - State Dept. Country Reports: http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt
- Death Penalty Status: http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-countries-eng
- Human Trafficking information: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2006/
- BBC Country Profiles: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm
- Department For International Development: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/countries/allcountries.asp?view=region
- United Nations Development Programme: http://www.undp.org/
- The World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/
Note: Population growth projections are often controversial. To calculate them for these fact sheets, we simply used the current population and population growth rate provided by the CIA World Factbook.