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WATER FOR LIFE. Providing Clean Water to the World Fred Soldwedel f_soldwedel@pacbell.net District 5300 Coordinator, Water Resources International Clean Water Initiative. WATER FOR LIFE Think of all the ways the Industrialized World takes water for granted.
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WATER FOR LIFE Providing Clean Water to the World Fred Soldwedel f_soldwedel@pacbell.net District 5300 Coordinator, Water Resources International Clean Water Initiative
WATER FOR LIFEThink of all the ways the Industrialized World takes water for granted • We have clean drinking water wherever we go • We bathe in clean water every day • We wash our clothes in clean water • We wash our cars with clean water • We water our plants and lawns • We swim in it in swimming pools
WATER FOR LIFEWhy is this such an important issue? • Diarrheal Diseases (dysentery, cholera, typhoid) • Estimated 1.2 billion cases of water-related diarrhea each year. • Responsible for 7.7% of all deaths in Africa each year. • Leading cause of death among children under 5 years old in developing countries: 1.5-3 million/year. • Blindness • Trachoma: leading cause of preventable blindness – not waterborne, but spread by lack of clean water. Simple face washing can prevent it. • Parasitic Organisms • Guinea worm – Water contaminated by larvae ingested; mature into worms up to 3 feet long. • Schistosomiasis (bilharzia) – worms from snail hosts.
WATER FOR LIFEParasites from unclean drinking water http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/707.html
WATER FOR LIFEWhat’s the extent of the water problem? According to the United Nations World Health Organization: • What percent of disease in third world countries is caused by contaminated water? • 80%! • How many people in the world have no access to clean water? • Over 1 billion worldwide • How many children die from waterborne diseases? • One every 8 seconds! 150 during a 20 minute presentation
WATER FOR LIFEHow do we help? There are many ways to provide clean drinking water to those in need!
WATER FOR LIFE – How do we help? Provide clean water to a single individual! Pay for a personal “drinking straw” $3-6 each http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw.htm
WATER FOR LIFE – How do we help? Provide clean water to a whole family! Pay for a family “drinking straw” $20-25 each http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw.htm
WATER FOR LIFE – How do we help? Provide clean water to a whole family! Pay for a family “bucket filter” system $25-50 each http://florenceor.clubwizard.com/WATERPROJECT.cfm
WATER FOR LIFE – How do we help? Provide clean water to dozens of people! Build a cistern for a house/hut $300-500
WATER FOR LIFE – How do we help? Provide water to a school full of children! Build a rain harvesting system $1,500-2,500 http://www.gdrc.org/uem/water/rainwater/introduction.html http://rainwaterharvesting.tamu.edu/rainwaterbasics.html
WATER FOR LIFE – How do we help? Provide water to hundreds of people in a remote village!! Drill boreholes and install hand pumps $2,000-5,000
WATER FOR LIFE – How do we help? Provide water to thousands of people in rural or urban settings! Drill boreholes and install electric pumps to fill large central water tanks $10,000-50,000
WATER FOR LIFE – How do we help? Provide water to tens of thousands! Build a water distribution system for an entire community $50,000-150,000
WATER FOR LIFE Providing Clean Water to the World Fred Soldwedel and Hassan Kheradmandan f_soldwedel@pacbell.net or hassank@sbcglobal.net District 5300 Coordinator, Water Resources International Clean Water Initiative