Safe Water Saves Lives

By Pooja Babbrah
Contributor

The alarm goes off at 6 am, I hop out of bed, walk into my kitchen and pour myself a cold glass of water. I drink about half of the glass, dump the rest down the drain and run upstairs to get ready for work and wake up my kids to get ready for school. This is a typical scenario that is repeated over and over again in households across America. Half-way around the world, this morning routine is completely different. In many countries around the world, women and children wake up every morning and instead of walking into their kitchens to get a drink of water and get ready for school, they leave their houses and spend hours each day in search of water, often walking long, steep and rugged trails. They carry water home in heavy pots on their heads, or strapped to their backs, and often this water is dirty water that will more than likely make them sick.

Global Water Crisis

Some of the world's most shocking water statistics are found in Ethiopia. More than 80 percent of Ethiopians live in the country's rural regions, where only 24 percent of the population has access to safe drinking water. On average, women walk four miles and carry approximately 44 pounds of water each day to their families. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 40 billion work hours are lost each year throughout Africa due to long-distance water gathering. To many of us living in the U.S., these numbers are hard to comprehend. We come from a land of water parks, daily showers and green lawns. According to the report, the average American uses roughly 100-150 gallons of water a day. If this is true, by the time we are 30 years old, we will have consumed more water than an entire village of sub-Saharan Africans may use in their entire lives.

But the water crisis goes far beyond sub-Saharan Africa. India, Bangladesh, Honduras and Ethiopia are just a few of the countries around the world where women and children walk for hours a day just to gather water for their families. According to the World Health Organization, a billion people on the planet do not have access to safe drinking water - that is one in eight people. The impact on children is even more alarming. A study conducted by the United Nations found that every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease, and over 90% of the deaths caused by diarrheal diseases are mostly children in developing countries under 5 years of age. The study also found that children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any time. Again, this is almost incomprehensible to use in the U.S. when we have clean, safe drinking water so easily accessible to us.

The Solution

So why don't these communities just drill a well? Drilling a well can cost anywhere from $4,000 - $ 12,000 and many of the people living in these communities are living on less than $1 a day. Even if all of the members in the community pooled their money together, they still could not afford to drill one in their community. Instead, there are several non-profit organizations who are working to help bring clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Water.org, Water1st International, and Charity Water are just a few of the organizations working to help solve the global water crisis. These non-profit organizations have found that the key to a successful water project is an integrated approach; integrated in terms of activities, as well as constituents. Studies have consistently shown that together, water, sanitation and health promotion activities can maximize health benefits, and have the greatest impact on deaths due to diarrheal illnesses. Most of these non-profits do not just go into communities and drill a well; they also include sanitation projects and health promotion activities in order for the project to be successful. These organizations usually work with the local communities and local partner organizations to help increase the success of the water and sanitation projects. Without the support of the local community, water projects are not sustainable and may shut down within a few years.

It takes a Village

The non-profit groups have found that water projects designed and run with the full participation of the women in the community are more sustainable and effective than those that are not. These results support a World Bank study that found that women's participation was strongly associated with water and sanitation project effectiveness. Because women are the water carriers and managers of water resources for the family, the projects to improve their water supply are more likely to succeed when women are actively involved.

The other key to a successful project is working with local partner organizations. In most cases, the organizations do not implement the projects. Instead, they work with local partner organizations, often non-governmental organizations (NGOs), that have proven their ability to undertake sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene education projects. The local partner organizations undertake the day-to-day management and implementation of projects. They train and support local communities to plan, construct, manage and maintain their own projects. Because the partners are local, they have a unique knowledge of the communities in which they work to implement projects, an understanding of the local and national government, relationships with local leaders, and the ability to speak in local dialects. Often the staff of local partner organizations who are successful at implementing high-quality, sustainable water projects are from communities similar to the ones where they work, allowing them to gain people's trust and confidence quickly. The local partner organizations understand the reasons why people lack access to clean water and the local traditions or customs that might prevent individuals and communities from making behavior changes that will allow them to live healthier lives.

Finally, projects would not be successful without the strong commitment of the people in the communities the projects will support. The communities are involved in every step of the planning, implementing, and financing of their projects. Communities are also responsible for the long-term operation and maintenance of their projects, so it is critical that they be involved in all stages of the work. Community involvement does not mean informing the community of decisions made elsewhere. It means facilitating a participatory process by which every community member, men and women and people from all socio-economic classes, can analyze the situation and jointly plan the most appropriate solutions. Water1st International, uses an elected group of women called the "water committee". Among other duties, this committee facilitates the health education program and determines the work schedule for construction. At the end of project construction, this committee oversees the day-to-day maintenance of the water system and collects the monthly user fees needed to pay for the operation and maintenance of the water system. Committee members receive training from our local partner organization so they are equipped to serve in this very important role."

As you can imagine, as the world's population continues to grow, and renewable water resources continue to dwindle, the global water crisis is likely to get worse. War experts say that the next world war would not be for land, nor for oil, but for water. Hard to believe when we can just walk into our kitchen, turn on the tap, and pour ourselves a nice cold glass of water. The problem, however is not in the U.S., but in countries around the world, countries that need our support so the women and children can stop spending half of their days searching for water, but instead, spending their days in school and doing activities that will help them get out of this cycle of poverty and death.

How can you help?

So how can you help? How can we make a difference? A charity event called Carry 5 Walk for Water is scheduled for April 11th, 2010 at Kiwanis Park, Tempe. Participants in the walk will attempt to carry between 1/2 and 5 gallons of water around the lake to simulate what the women and children in developing countries must do every day just to get drinking water for their families. All funds from the event will go to Water1st, International in support of water related community projects in India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Honduras. The event is a family event and all ages are welcome! If you are unable to attend the Charity walk, you can also donate online to Water1st, International or any of the non-profit organizations mentioned in this article by visiting their websites which are listed below.

For more information on the carry 5 Walk for water, or to register for the walk, please visit www.water1st.org or contact Pooja Babbrah at pbabbrah@gmail.com or by phone (480) 332-2593.

Non-Profit Organizations:
Water1st, International: www.water1st.org
Charity Water: www.charitywater.org
Water.org: www.water.org