Overpopulation? In Africa?

Jamie Chen

WLH

Ms.Tompkins

3/11/15

Overpopulation? In Africa?

Crowded, hungry, and noisy. This is the simple life in the overpopulation problem that is embedded in Africa. Many believe that Africans suffer from shortages of food and other major lack of necessities, however many don't know that overpopulation is also a big issue. Overpopulation in Africa has been an issue for a few decades; this issue also inhibits the growth of the African countries as well as the well being of the people themselves.

As this problem continues in the countries of these people will continue to be held back by this problem, the longer they have to develop to transform into a first world country.

The population of the African countries grows rapidly every day; the economy is struggling to survive.  In an article posted by The World Post, Robert walker explains, “Egypt has more people than Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates combined. Half or more of Egypt's food, including its wheat, is imported. Egypt is also heavily dependent on diesel imports to transport its food and run its agriculture machinery” (Walker). Naturally, more people need more people to support them. Yet Egypt does not have enough means to support its own economy and all of its “82 million” people (Walker). Therefore, Egypt needs to import more resources from other countries to sustain its huge population, causing a major fault in the Egyptian economy. This situation is going to be even worse in the future as “200 million Africans are between 15 and 24 years old.  This young population is expected to more than double by 2050, when as many as 800 million Africans are expected to be between the ages of 25 and 59” (Munkhondya). With the rapid increase in the next 40 years, Egypt is faced with an even bigger dilemma with its economic decline. This problem will increase exponentially as more people are being born and growing up in the huge African society, and it will continue if no one does anything about it.

With the crowded and impoverished environment, the state of overpopulation brings different epidemics to the world. In a web page posted by www.everythingconnects.org, the author states, “(overpopulation) exacerbates many social and environmental factors, including overcrowded living conditions, pollution, malnutrition and inadequate or non-existent health care, which wreak havoc on the poor and increase their likelihood of being exposed to infections”(Effects). The mass of people crowded in small room with bad personal hygiene is a catalyst to different diseases such as the newly discovered Ebola virus. As more and more people catch and spread these infectious diseases through some of the doctors and other humanitarian volunteers that treat the sick. Then those who are newly infected with the disease now return to their homes across the world, potentially spreading the disease to other parts of the world.

The fast growing population in Africa is dragging world down with its huge problems. Some organizations see this problem and started to do something about it. Many governments started to introduce family plans in many dense urban areas and other private organizations gave many African adolescents sexual education to prevent further teen pregnancies and other future contributions to overpopulation. Therefore, they are helping Africa to gain stability and safety to its inhabitants.

Work Cited: 
Walker, Robert. "Egypt: Too Big, Too Late to Save?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29   Apr. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

Munkhondya, Davie. "FPAM Engages Ku Youths to Fight Overpopulation."Student Resources in Context.   N.p., 2 May 2014. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.

"Effects of Human Overpopulation." N.p., 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.