Water woes

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lack of access to clean water and inadequate sanitation kills nearly 4,000 children worldwide, every day.

WHO estimates that half the people in the developing world have one or more water-borne diseases. One of the most serious is roundworm infection, which can cause serious anemia, gastrointestinal problems, malnutrition, and heart disease when contaminated drinking water is consumed.

Schistosomiasis or bilharzias (pronounced bill-HAR-zi-a), caused by parasitic worms, results from swimming or wading in fresh water contaminated by human waste. The parasites burrow through the skin and can infect the liver, intestine, bladder, or brain.

It is a sad irony that many foreign-funded developments produce easier access to water, but not cleaner water. Mega-dams are often used to encourage irrigation but result in slow-flowing, easily contaminated water.

One way to provide clean drinking water is through slow sand filtration. A simple and easily maintained design consists of a concrete shell filled with graded sand and gravel, with water exiting from the bottom via a plastic pipe.

You can follow the lead of Rotary International by donating to Pure Water for the World (purewaterfortheworld.org), helping them supply low-cost and easily maintained water filtration systems to the Third World.