Water Spouts will speak volubly and endlessly about all the issues concerning water. The ongoing degradation, and growing scarcity, of the water supply here in the US, and the rest of the world. The continued absence of potable water in so many parts of the world. The work being done by NGOs, and charities, in the third world, to help alleviate the situation. The emphasis on WASH ( Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene ) so health and healthy water are maintained. "Water Spouts" will spout it all out.
International charity organization, Save the Children, warned Sunday that the refugee situation in South Sudan is worsening steadily on a daily basis as the already over-crowded camps in the region are ill-equipped to deal with the continued flow of refugees.
The charity said up to 2,000 children are arriving daily at the already over-crowded and flooded camps set up in South Sudan's Unity and Upper Nile states. It added that some families have even been forced to abandon elderly and weak relatives along the way.
It said seasonal rains have turned the region into a quagmire, making the living conditions and the aid effort far more difficult. Further, aid agencies working in the camps are currently struggling to provide clean water, food and shelter to thousands of new arrivals due to the scale of the influx, funding shortages and adverse weather conditions, the charity added.
"Thousands of families are arriving in South Sudan hungry and terrified after walking for days to reach safety. People are coming just as heavy rains make it virtually impossible to access these areas to provide aid," Jon Cunliffe, Save the Children's South Sudan country director, said in a statement.
"The resources are not in place to meet the needs of everyone. The worst-case scenario is now a reality; we are witnessing a full-blown humanitarian crisis in one of the most remote places on earth," he added.
Save the Children has launched an emergency response in refugee camps set up in South Sudan, protecting vulnerable children and providing education to refugees. The aid agency is currently in the process of scaling up its programs in response to the recent influx of refugees.
South Sudan had declared independence from Sudan in July 2010 after it voted overwhelmingly in favor of separation from the North in a referendum. The January 2010 referendum was line with a 2005 peace agreement that ended 22 years of civil war between the Arab North and the Christian and animist South.
Talks between the two nations for resolving outstanding issues triggered by South Sudan gaining independence from Sudan two years ago were stalled in April after fierce border clashes broke out between the two neighboring nations. An estimated 150,000 people have been displaced by the conflict.
In a unanimously adopted resolution in early May, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had determined that the situation along the Sudan-South Sudan border constituted "a serious threat to international peace and security." Calling on the two countries to immediately end hostilities and resume negotiations, the UNSC declared its intention to take "appropriate measures" if the parties did not comply to the demand by August 2.
The talks between the two neighboring African nations subsequently resumed in late May in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa, following the UNSC warning. The ongoing talks under the auspices of the African Union (AU) High-Level Implementation Panel are aimed at resolving disputes related to sharing of oil wealth as well as border issues.
Six months ago the Republic of South Sudan became the world's newest nation, officially separating from northern Sudan. But since independence there's been increasing violence in the resource rich border areas of Abyei, Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan and now the situation is worsening again. The United Nations warned that more than two and half million people in South Sudan will require food assistance and Doctors Without Borders says a series of humanitarian emergencies are unfolding as, this month, many thousands of refugees have fled across the border into South Sudan to escape conflict. Jean Pierre Amigo is MSF's Field Coordinator in Maban South Sudan, where they have established a refugee camp. He joined us on a satellite phone.
We turn on the faucet to obtain our water. A quick
flick of the finger, a turn of the wrist or sometimes just the presence
of our hands in the sink engages the stream. Obtaining water for so many
of us is, in a word, effortless. Wells themselves and fetching water
has been somewhat romanticized in our culture. We see Laura Ingalls
Wilder, flowers in her braids, cut a path through the blowing grass of
the prairie to bring a bucket of water home for Ma. We listen to Snow
White’s voice echo into the depth of a mossy stone-well, “One day my
prince will come.” We give shiny copper coins, of very little worth, to
the most naïve amongst us and tell them to make a wish and then toss
them into the mouth of wells, wells that are there for décor, not for
survival.
But the wells that Water 4 Kids International provides
for people all over the world are not novelty items or a blast into the
past, they are a necessary aspect of the village’s very survival.
Fetching water, a task which falls mainly on the women and children of a
community, is exhausting and dangerous. As our teams have traveled all
over the world, we have encountered many stories of children walking to
get water and never returning home because they got injured by a wild
animal or abducted. The gathering of water takes up so much of the day
and uses up so much energy that many of the children, for whom this task
falls, are unable to attend school. All this effort is put towards
gathering water that ultimately results in causing 75% of the deaths in
remote villages, not very conducive to a fairy tale storyline is it?
The physicality of the wells or boreholes that W4KI
drills are very different from the wells that one might imagine. They go
very deep into the earth and are sealed so that no contamination can
reach the water source and no injury can occurred. A hand pump, easily
operated by young and old, is all that sprouts out of the surface where
the well is drilled. W4KI not only drills, but educates and makes
certain that the well is properly maintained. We also purchase the
actual land where the well resides so that disputes over well ownership
will never arise.
We know that there is a huge need for wells in remote
villages. It is our wish that you will get motivated for our cause and
inspired by the stories of the lives of the people that we have met and
shared with you. We want you to feel a tug to get involved. Please visit
www.w4ki.org to read about villages we have highlighted that are in the greatest need and please take note of Pipeline’s Getting WELL Connected
event that is happening this month on May 30th in Scottsdale, AZ. We
are very hopeful that enough support will be raised at this event for
several wells. Stories and fairy tales are told as an escape from
reality, a break from the facts of life, but true stories can have good
endings as well. That is what we are wishing for and we hope that you
will be a part of making those wishes come true.
The fourth Africa Water Week in Cairo last week called on African
governments to honour their commitments on water and sanitation.
More than 1,000 participants from Africa and beyond attended the
event, which was organised by the African Ministers' Council on Water
(AMCOW) to discuss what needs to be done to meet the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) on water and sanitation.
Representatives from WaterAid were there to call on developing
country governments to commit to bringing water and sanitation services
to 100 million more Africans.
Nelson Gomonda, our Pan-Africa Programme Manager, said: "The key
messages from the week attempt to address some of our calls and
messages. However, there should have been clearer milestones leading up
to 2015, bearing in mind that AMCOW decided not to come up with another
set of commitments, but rather to renew the vigour to implement existing
declarations.
"There is also an underlying assumption that the responsibility lies
more with governments to move into implementation of commitments made
under AfricaSan and Sanitation and Water for All.
"It is critical for us to continue pushing for the meeting of Finance
and Water Ministers in Africa to renew progress on funding commitments
and indeed ensure that WASH remains high on Africa’s Development Agenda
post-2015."
The video called for action to address the sanitation and water
crisis in Africa as a crucial step to poverty eradication and
development.
Water and sanitation key messages
The key messages from the week focused on the following actions for water and sanitation:
African governments and stakeholders should focus resources to
accelerate safe sanitation and hygiene promotion activities leading up
to 2015.
Finance and water ministers urgently need to renew progress on funding commitments.
Ties between AfricaSan and National Sanitation Action Planning
toward Sanitation and Water for All need to be strengthened to affirm
commitments and move implementation forward.
AMCOW should play a constructive role in mobilising ministerial support for national commitments to reduce non-revenue water.
Water and sanitation performance monitoring systems need to be harmonised at regional, national, and local.
ONE DROP—an initiative of Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil®—is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that was founded on October 29, 2007, in Montreal, Canada.
In Canada, ONE DROP is a charitable organization that develops
integrated, innovative projects with an international scope, in which
water plays a central role as a creative force in generating positive,
sustainable effects for local and foreign populations and in the fight
against poverty. More specifically, ONE DROP Canada, in cooperation with
partner Oxfam and others, develops access-to-water and sanitation
projects in countries where access to this vital resource is lacking. In
addition, ONE DROP is involved in raising awareness among individuals
and communities on water-related issues to convince them to mobilize for
universal access to water and urge them to adopt sound habits for
managing this precious resource for future generations. In closing, ONE
DROP Canada is also involved in fundraising—a crucial activity if it is
to realize its dream of water for all, today and tomorrow. To this end, the partners of ONE DROP have joined forces with the organization for pursuing this objective.
ONE DROP Canada serves as the organization’s international
headquarters. An international committee representing each of the
affiliates has been formed, in accordance with the clauses in the
affiliation agreement.
Learn about THE WATER CRISIS
There are two water cycles on our planet:
The first moves water from clouds to rain to oceans and back again.
The second affects communities without access to water as this drags
them deeper into poverty and poor health, which, in turn, makes it more
difficult for them to access water.
While the first rests in the hands of nature, the second rests in ours.
Water is an inherent right, yet almost a billion people
do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion live in areas
without sanitation. Worldwide solidarity is the best defence against
the monopolization of this invaluable resource.
Water is life, but we continue to pollute and
overexploit it, thus threatening the world’s diverse ecosystems and,
therefore, access to water today and in the future.
Water brings people together, not only geographically
but in the sense that the water crisis provides an opportunity for the
developed and developing worlds to work together like never before to
pool their resources, knowledge, experience and dreams for a common
purpose: to solve the problem and change the way society works.
People like you have come together to join ONE DROP, each one adding a
drop towards the solution. Our movement dreams of a day when the people
of the world unite to form a powerful river, sharing wealth of all kinds
to protect our water and make certain everyone has access to it. ONE
DROP believes global solidarity is the key to our dream of water for
all, today and tomorrow.
Access
Almost a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, and 2.5 billion live without sanitation.
A lack of access to water exacerbates poverty. It is an
unforgiving cycle: poverty contributes to access problems, which in turn
leads to deeper impoverishment. In many cases, the poorest households
pay up to ten times more for their water than do more affluent homes.
Consider this fact: in Mozambique, the average person uses less than 10
litres of water per day, while an American uses approximately 575 litres
a day.
More unsettling are the challenges to the implementation of water
crisis solutions, such as a region’s governance, infrastructure and
economy. The dry truth is that, while certain areas of the world are in
need of access to safe drinking water, many local governments will
not—or cannot—allocate the appropriate resources to remedy the
situation. As a result, some communities must get their water from
sources shared with animals and contaminated with animal waste.
In many countries, ONE DROP backs local organizations and
partners who work together to bring money, technology and knowledge to
communities in need of access to safe water.
Health
Contaminated or poor-quality water is the second leading cause of
infant mortality in the world, killing close to 2 million each year.
Eighty
percent of developing-world diseases are related to lack of safe
drinking water. Those who fall ill cannot go to school or work and are
subsequently dragged deeper into poverty.
Beyond forcing
families to sacrifice food money to buy medicine, fighting disease is an
enormous drain on a country’s economy as resources that would otherwise
be spent on long-term social and development programs are diverted to
the more immediate needs of healthcare.
Study after study
confirms that serious health issues (such as cancer and birth defects)
and water pollution are inextricably linked. The water crisis and the
health problems that are tied to them are challenges shared among
developed and developing countries.
Women
Too often, women are not included in the decision-making process
surrounding water issues, even though the struggle to get water
typically falls on their shoulders.
The task of gathering water can take up to four hours a day.
Moving as much as 100 kg of water over many kilometres means risking
health and personal safety; in certain cases, there is no choice but to
go through areas that leave them vulnerable to attack by people or wild
animals.
Over 70% of those who collect water under such circumstances are
women and girls. As such, the daily chore prevents tens of millions of
girls from going to school, and those who do find the opportunity to
attend school often leave due to inadequate sanitation facilities.
Women are also more susceptible to waterborne diseases because it
is they who care for ill family members and wash clothing in rivers
filled with contaminants and bilharzias (blood flukes).
Time lost on collecting water could be better spent on
life-improving activities such as going to school or learning a trade.
Safe local water pumps can give them more of that precious time.
Furthermore, cutting down the duration of a woman’s daily water tasks to
one hour puts an extra US $100 into her pocket every year.
Over-consumption
While our thirst for water steadily rises, the water supply does
not. During the 20th century, the world’s population tripled, but its
consumption of water increased sevenfold.
Where we use water:
1. Agriculture (70% of world water use)
2. Industry (20%)
3. Domestic use (10%)
The planet is buckling under the stress of supplying us with
water for the seemingly infinite number of ways we have found to use it.
Today, almost 1.4 billion people live in river basin areas where
consumption of water exceeds the region’s ability to replenish itself.
Over-consumption leads to a variety of consequences:
Rivers run dry before they reach the sea
Underground tables dry up
The cost of finding water escalates
We live in an era of conflicting priorities when it comes to the
use of water. Too often, the planet’s diverse ecosystems—and all the
creatures in them, including humans—are not prioritized, protected or
preserved. Instead of allocating, distributing and preserving water so
everyone is provided for, we drop golf courses in the middle of the
desert and we use 2,400 litres of water to make a single hamburger
Pollution
Water pollution is a scourge of both developed and developing
countries. All nations need to take responsibility and help remedy the
situation by working together and sharing resources.
The sources of the pollution of our planet’s water are varied and
include aggressive agricultural practices, industry and municipal uses.
In the United States, 40% of waterways—from rivers to brooks—are
unsuitable for fishing, bathing or drinking. In developing countries,
90% of sewage is dumped—untreated—into bodies of water.
Water pollution threatens ecosystems and access to water for our
generation and those to come. All over the world, water is becoming less
suitable not only for human consumption but also for agricultural and
industrial use. It can even cause death, disease and other health
issues.
Making water potable is increasingly expensive; what’s more, the
costs are often not shared equally, thus exacerbating world poverty
levels.
Just one litre of lubricating oil can contaminate one million
litres of water. But a single drop of effort can change poor water
habits or provide access to safe drinking water.
A Solution
ONE DROP believes the solution to our planet’s water crisis is
solidarity. Each one of us—every country and every person—must recognize
and act on our responsibility towards water. But how are we to
accomplish this?
Our potential for creativity is infinite—unlike the water we must
work to preserve. Exploring audacious and inspiring solutions to
complex water problems requires that countries share the best of what
they have, whether that be knowledge, wealth, experience, materials,
technology, dreams or people.
Water is everywhere and essential
to all life. The prosperity—and perhaps even the very future—of the
human race is at stake; such a level of responsibility requires that we
work together. Solidarity is the solution waiting to happen.
WaterLex, through its legal expertise, supports the harmonization and
strengthening of international law asserting the trumping value of human
rights commitments over any other international commitments. In this
context, WaterLex also promotes and assists civil society initiatives
aiming at strengthening the accountability of all actors who impact
water governance.
Welcome to the WaterLex Online Legal Database! You can search here for International and National Legal Sources complying with the human right to water and sanitation.
Background
The origins of the HRWS Online Database are written publications
compiling legal sources in one specific field. For over 40 years, the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been
gathering legislation on food and agriculture, and publishing it in a
document entitled Food and Agricultural Legislation.
In the field of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, a similar
process has been undertaken by the Geneva based non-profit organization,
Center on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and its publication
entitled Sources 8: Legal Resources for the Right to Water.(1) The first
version of the later has been issued in 2003, a revised version has
been published in 2008.(2)
Following the recognition of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, by
the United Nations General Assembly in July 2010, WaterLex considered
it a key priority to make such legal sources available to all
stakeholders interested in contributing to the realization of this
fundamental human right.
Between 2010 and early 2012, WaterLex in partnership with Freshwater
Action Network and WASH-United, compiled excerpts from a variety of
legal sources, namely international conventions and declaration,
national laws, policies and strategies. The selection of excerpts was
based on their alignment with the Human Right to Water and Sanitation
content as defined under International Human Rights Law. The initial
compilation was published as a book.(3)
Further, the initial countries excerpts presented at the 6th World Water
Forum were also influenced by the capacity of three initial partners to
access laws and policies in general (cf. translation challenges). This
limitation is expected to be bridged through a strong increase in
project partners over 2012 to ensure the exhaustivity and sustainability
of the project.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the WaterLex’ Online Legal Database?
The WaterLex Online Legal Database is a worldwide unique multi-stakeholder initiative pursuing
the objective to gather all laws and policies at international and national level which are aligned and
contribute to the realization of the human right to water and sanitation (as defined under international
human rights law). The database provides also links to all original sources and case law references.
Note: This database should not be mixed up with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
database linked to FAO-Lex labeled ‘Waterlex’(link)
What is the purpose of the Online Database?
In the framework of the United Nations, States recognized the Human Right to Water and Sanitation
as legally binding (Cf. UN GA, Human Rights Council, and WHO Resolutions). Implementation of such
new international commitment requires alignment and harmonization of national laws and policies. The
HRWS Online Database therefore serves several purposes.
Firstly it can be used by Parliamentarians and Law Commissions who wish to see how other countries
in the worlds already developed their legislation or policies in the field of the HRWS. Secondly, it can
also be used by Civil Society Organizations and Politicians who wish to assert gaps and suggest
amendments in legislation and policies. Thirdly and most commonly, it can be used for all legal
practitioners as a worldwide reliable source of law, policies and case law related to water governance.
Who updates the files in the Database?
Any legal form, public administration or NGO may submit updates for the Online Database. All
supports will be acknowledged on the website.
The legal sources and excerpts submitted are reviewed by the Excerpts Reviewing Committee (ERC)
consisting of the University of Essex – Human Rights Clinic, University of Dundee – UNESCO Center
for Water Law, Swiss Federal Center for Comparative Law and WaterLex. This steering committee
may be broaden in the years to come to additional academic institutions.
For the launch of the initiative at the 6th World Water Forum, the initial compilation of excerpts have
been submitted by WaterLex, FAN-Global and WASH-United. This initial
compilation is also available in printed format (Link).
Interest joining the project?
All organizations wishing to join the project either as a content submitter or as a sponsor, are warmly
invited to make their interest known via the contact form to Dr. Helene Boussard.
International aid organisation, WaterAid, has called on governments
attending the ongoing 4th Africa Water Week meeting in Cairo, Egypt, to
as a matter of urgency work towards providing water and sanitation,
for over 100 more Africans within the next two years.
Specifically, WaterAid has asked African Governments to act to
provide safe drinking water to 42.8 million people and adequate
sanitation to 59.9 million by the year 2014.
According to WaterAid, which is core convenor for the sub-theme of
‘Meeting water and sanitation targets’ at the Africa Water Week meeting
taking place from 14th to 19th May, their call is informed by the recent
estimates that in sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 600 million people lack
access to adequate sanitation, while 335 million people lack access to
clean, safe water.
Also, over three quarters of a million children (750,000) in Africa
are said to die every year due to diarrhoeal diseases caused, in the
vast majority of cases, by a lack of safe drinking water and adequate
sanitation.
Speaking to the issue, Nelson Gomonda, WaterAid’s Pan-Africa
Programme Manager stated: “African governments risk their credibility if
they do not seize the opportunity to tackle this crisis by
significantly increasing access to water and sanitation in their
countries. With thousands of African children dying every day,
governments should honour previous promises to increase their spending
on sanitation.”
WaterAid is supporting Africa Water Week which has brought together
policy makers from across Africa, as an opportunity for sharing valuable
skills, experiences, and best practice around achieving access to water
and sanitation for all.
Commitments previously made by African government include those made
most recently by 30 African nations at the Sanitation and Water for All
meeting in April in Washington DC, plus the 2007 eThekwini Declaration
(where governments agreed to budget 0.5% of their GDP on sanitation),
and Sharm El-Sheikh in 2008 (on accelerating water and sanitation
goals).
Currently though, only one African government, Sao Tome and Principe, has met the eThekwini Declaration target.
WaterAid successfully pushed for similar targets on increasing access
to these essential services at the High Level Meeting of the Sanitation
and Water for All partnership in Washington D.C. in April.
At the HLM, nearly 30 African Countries and many other governments
from around the globe agreed to strive to implement baseline commitments
to increase access to water by 5% and sanitation by 7% in their
countries over the next two years.
However, despite global progress, sub-Saharan Africa is not due to
meet its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on water until 2032
(17 years too late) and not due to reach universal access until 2075.
Further, the region is not due to reach its sanitation MDG by 2175
(160 years too late) and not due to reach universal access until 2360,
says WaterAid.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Programme estimates that
the shortfall in water and sanitation services cost sub-Saharan African
countries around 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) each year ($55.6
billion in 2010), more than the amount provided in development aid to
the entire continent ($47.9 billion in 2010).
Women line up in March as part of a cash-for-work project run by CARE in Niger, which is suffering from drought.
From his Toyota Land Cruiser, Kent Alexander couldn't stop clicking his camera.
Endless stretches of
windswept sand clashed with the vibrant blues, reds and yellows of the
billowing dresses of the women. Alexander, the general counsel for the
humanitarian agency CARE, felt he was riding through pages of National
Geographic magazine.
The harshness of the
terrain and its cruel consequences for the people of the Sahel became
apparent when Alexander stopped and visited villages with a CARE
delegation. He saw women walking three miles with pails to fetch water,
diamond droplets in the drought-stricken land.
In the Sahel, a region
that runs south of the Sahara Desert across Africa from the Atlantic to
the Red Sea, people are gaunt from eating just one meal a day, most of
the time, millet. They are suffering from severe malnutrition and
heading towards famine, the United Nations fears.
Alexander has seen
poverty before -- in 1989, he helped found Hands on Atlanta, which grew
to become one of the world's largest community based volunteer
organizations with more than half a million volunteers. But he'd never
seen anything as abject as he did in Niger.
On a five-hour drive from
the capital, Niamey, to the town of Konni, Alexander listened to the
audiobook, "The Hunger Games," a novel that opens with the bleakness of a
post-apocalyptic town called District 12.
Niger felt like District 12 on steroids.
"I'd seen the poorest
parts of Atlanta and it was stark," Alexander says, back in his fifth
floor office at CARE USA. "But the starkness in Niger doesn't compare."
The needy in Atlanta had solid housing. Fans. Refrigerators. Television sets.
In Niger, there was nothing. No electricity. No plumbing. No food.
The West African nation of 17 million people ranks second to last on a United Nations Human Development index.
Alexander took the job
with CARE about a year ago, after almost 11 years as Emory University's
general counsel. A whole other world opened up for a man who'd made a
successful living as a lawyer in Atlanta.
At CARE, Alexander deals
with employment to taxes to regulatory issues in the myriad nations
where the agency works. He's traveled to India and the West African
nations of Ivory Coast and Mali, before the coup in March.
"It's one thing to be a
tourist, but another to be with an NGO," he says, using the commonly
used acronym for a non-governmental organization.
CARE has been working in
Niger since 1974, when it first responded to famine. People there lead
hardscrabble lives in the arid, landlocked nation where only 42 percent
of the population have access to safe drinking water and only 15% of
women can read or write.
Niger is the worst
country on earth in which to be a mother, according to a report by Save
the Children. The charity's annual Mothers' Index uses statistics
covering female and child health and nutrition, as well as prospects for
women's education, economic prosperity and political participation in
its assessment of 165 countries.
CARE has been running
several programs helping villagers to stand up on their own. Many focus
on empowering women and girls through education and microlending.
This year, life has been even tougher.
"Niger is again facing a
crisis of a failed harvest because last season the rains did not come,"
says Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the World Food Program.
"Because the rains failed last season, what you're seeing is that the
hungry poor, the most vulnerable populations, are now at the point where
they have depleted their assets. And as a result, they have no food."
The food shortages are further aggravated by thousands of refugees fleeing fighting in northern Mali.
More than 15 million
people face hunger and starvation across the Sahel this year; 4 million
in Niger, says the World Food Program.
The thing about the
Sahel, says Alexander, is that the crisis doesn't seem dire to people
watching from afar. It's unlike the Horn of Africa food emergency, where
women from Somalia walked 100 miles carrying children to reach a
refugee camp in Kenya. Or where children were skull and bones with
distended bellies. Where starving people died in front of cameras.
"The Sahel hasn't reached that point but it's moving in that direction," Alexander says. "It's a slow train wreck in motion."
Here's the other thing,
he says. If people donated small amounts of money now, there would not
be a need for millions later to save lives.
Villagers thanked
Alexander and his colleagues for CARE's work in helping them with wells
and plant gardens so they could grow vegetables instead of eating only
grains every day.
They spoke about the hunger in their bellies as
matter-of-factly as an American would describe an ordinary day at work.
In one of the villages,
as Alexander saw dozens of children crowd behind the Land Cruiser.
The
tail gate was open and the driver was standing by a cooler containing
leftover drinks from lunch earlier.
"Kent, this is the face of poverty," said Alexander's colleague, Philippe Leveque, director of CARE France.
Alexander thought Leveque was overreacting. It was more than 100 degrees that day. Who wouldn't clamor for a cold drink?
Then, he says, he took a closer look.
The cooler was shut
tight. The driver was not handing out drinks but empty cans and plastic
bottles. The cans would turn into toy cars and planes; the bottles,
receptacles for precious drops when the rains finally come months from
now.
"Our trash was their treasure," Alexander says. In America, it's a good deed to recycle. In Niger, it was a gift.
This was the face of poverty in the Sahel. It was a jolting lesson for Alexander.
Alexander looks out the
wall-to-wall windows in his office. Above, he sees clear, blue skies.
In
front of him, dormitory buildings of Georgia State University,
architecturally dull and painted in drab colors. Yet, Alexander no
longer sees them as unattractive. Everything seems relative.
Across from his office,
Trina Trice, a senior executive assistant, finishes a meager lunch of
half a cup of black beans and a smidgen of frozen broccoli, every morsel
cleaned off the bowl. All week, she has been surviving on $1.50 of food
a day in a campaign aimed to help people understand what extreme
poverty feels like.
Trice says she has little energy.
"Last night I was so
tired I didn't even eat dinner," she says, adding that she could not
imagine having to walk for miles for water, especially in her weakened
state.
Alexander says it's the
kind of insight that he hopes will help bridge what the United Nations
calls an alarming lack of donations for the Sahel food crisis,
especially because Niger is rarely on the evening news. He says it's
hard for people, understandably, to fathom the scope of the crisis from
far away. He is glad he was able to see the situation firsthand.
It's been several weeks
since Alexander returned home from what he called a profound trip.
He's
still unpacking, he says. He doesn't mean his suitcase.
Instead of having a birthday party, a 13-year-old girl has enlisted friends to carry jugs of water in Studio City to raise awareness and money for African water wells.
Since the age of 9, Lulu Cerone has taken an active interest in
bringing water to international communities in need. After the
earthquake in Haiti, Lulu decided to raise money for relief with a
lemonade stand at a local park and challenged her friends to do the
same. Together, they raised $,4000 in one weekend.
Lulu expanded on her lemonade stand concept, enlisting friends and local businesses for support, and developed her own charity, LemonAID Warriors.
On May 4, Luly will celebrate her 13th birthday with a Water Walk to
raise money for the African water crisis. She has rallied a group of
friends to walk two miles of Ventura Blvd., in Studio City, carrying
jugs of water. She hopes that this act will encourage others to help
save lives by giving money to build fresh-water drinking wells.
To donate or to get involved go to Lulu Cerone’s page on Causes. To see her LemonAID Warriors website click here.
The walk will be held on Friday, May 4, at 5 p.m., beginning at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura Boulevard.
The international development agency WaterAid has
welcomed pledges from African Ministers that if delivered would provide
85.4 million Africans with access to these essential life saving
services across the continent.
The pledges were made by developing country ministers participating
in the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High Level Meeting in
Washington D.C. These commitments if realised mean that the Governments
will need to strive over the next two years to increase access to water
by 5% and sanitation by 7% in their countries.
The figures for increased access to water of 35.6 million people and
sanitation of 49.8 million people have been calculated by WaterAid, a
partner of the SWA initiative at the conclusion of the High Level
Meeting that brought together a hundred developing and donor country
ministers and officials from over 50 countries.
WaterAid 's discussion document
Saving Lives, shows that by meeting the Millennium Development Goal
(MDG) on sanitation by 2015, the lives of over 280,000 children under
the age of five would be saved in Sub-Saharan Africa. At current rates
of progress the continent is not expected to reach the sanitation MDG
target until the year 2175, 160 years late.
A lack of safe sanitation and water and the diarrhoea it causes is
the biggest killer of children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ministers in
Africa are committed to do more to reach people with water and
sanitation services, and their pledges to strive for increased access
for over 85 million people are much welcomed. The key challenge now will
be putting in place and delivering the national plans in a timely
fashion to make these commitments a reality."
WaterAid has also strongly welcomed the announcement from the UK
Secretary of State for International Development, the Rt. Hon. Andrew
Mitchell MP that the UK is doubling the number of people they intend to
reach with water, improved hygiene and sanitation by 2015, from 30
million to at least 60 million people.
A recent DFID review showed that water, sanitation and hygiene
interventions are a highly cost effective way of improving the health,
welfare and livelihoods of poor people living in developing countries
and represent excellent value for money. However, until now these
interventions attracted just 2% of the UK's aid budget.
Barbara Frost continued:
"We are delighted that the Coalition Government has committed to
double the number of people it plans to reach from 30 to at least 60
million people who will benefit from water, improved hygiene and
sanitation.
"The Secretary of State has demonstrated not just through words but
also in actions that the UK is truly leading the international community
in tackling the water and sanitation crisis. We call on the other
donors and governments to follow the UK Government's lead and redouble
their efforts to achieve sanitation and water for all."
Alongside the baseline pledges 'to strive' towards increasing access
to water by 5% and sanitation by 7% made by all the developing country
governments participating in the High Level Meeting, governments have
also tabled their own country commitments as part of this meeting.
For example, in Uganda, the Government has committed to providing
4,800,000 with improved sanitation and an additional 2,236,544 with
access to safe drinking water. While in Zambia, amongst other
commitments, the Government has pledged to make at least 1,000 rural
wards open defecation free by 2014. The Government of Burkina Faso is
committed to allocating at least 17.5 CFA billion annually ($35 million
U.S.) to improving access to water sanitation.
End
Water Poverty welcomes the commitments made at the Sanitation and Water
for All High Level Meeting. More and better targeted funding is needed
if these ambitious goals are to be reached.
An
unprecedented number of Ministers of Finance, Development and Water
from 40 countries, along with development banks and civil society, came
together today for this historic meeting to accelerate efforts to bring
clean water and safe sanitation to millions.
Ministers
of Water, Sanitation, Environment and Health from across Africa and
Asia announced that in each of their countries they will strive to
decrease open defecation by 15%, improve access to water by 5% and
increase access to safe sanitation by 7% by 2014. These promises would
provide56 million people with safe drinking water and 78 million people with sanitation over the next two years (WaterAid figures).
Rudy
Amenga-Etego, from the African Civil Society Network on Water and
Sanitation (ANEW) who represented civil society at meeting said: “We’re
pleased to see ambitious commitments being made to get water and
sanitation to our citizens. We now need to see new funding, clear plans
and better targeting to make sure these promises can be kept.”
Yakub Hossein, from the Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA) said: “Only
by working together, can we ensure that we start to see real progress
for the poorest and most vulnerable communities. As civil society we
commit ourselves to working together with governments and communities to
tackle this crisis as well as ensuring that world leaders keep the
promises they made today.”
Some developing countries went even further. Benin committed to increasing its budget allocations for 2013-2014 by 100% per year for basic sanitation, whilst Burkina Faso
committed to allocating at least US$35m to water and sanitation
annually and promised to eradicate open defecation by 2015. Kenya
pledged that a further 20 million people would gain access to drinking
water and sanitation by 2015 and Nigeria promised to progressively
increase the budget allocation for water and sanitation over the next
three years.
Crucially,
developing countries called on donor countries to support them in
reaching these ambitious targets by increasing resources and expertise
for water and sanitation and better targeting aid to the poorest
countries and communities.
Donor countries responded by making commitments of their own, with the UK announcing that they are doubling their commitment for water and sanitation over the next two years from 30 to 60 million people globally.
Dutch
Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation Ben Knapen
announced a new initiative between the Netherlands and UK to bring water
and sanitation to an additional 10 million people in nine countries in
West and Central Africa. In all, the Netherlands intends to scale up
its assistance to reach 25 million more people globally over the next
four years.
Knapen said: “In
the current economic climate we are not taking this decision lightly.
We are giving a significant amount of money to UNICEF to help in this
work, but when you count the health and economic benefits, and in
particular the lives of children, the government of the Netherlands believes this is unquestionably the right call.”
Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, said:
“For too long, water and sanitation has not received the priority it
deserves from the international community. That is why the Coalition
Government will commit to helping over 60 million people access basic
services, such as communal water pumps.”
Other donors followed suit with Germany
committing to reaching 30 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa with
water and sanitation by 2015, focusing on “the poor and extremely poor
population… and the most vulnerable, such as slum dwellers and
children.”
USAID
Administrator Rajiv Shah announced that USAID will join the Sanitation
and Water for All Partnership. Australia will also join the partnership.
End
Water Poverty welcomes these commitments but emphasises that there is
still a funding shortfall if countries are to reach these ambitious
targets and get water and sanitation to those most in need.
Rolien Sasse, CEO of Simavi in the Netherlands and End Water Poverty civil society representative on the SWA steering committee said: “Civil
society now has a crucial role in both supporting governments to
deliver and holding them to account on these commitments –End Water
Poverty members will be leading the way.
In September 2011, we asked you to help fund charity: water’s first
drilling rig to bring clean water to 40,000 new people every year in
rural Ethiopia. More than 1,400 mycharity: water fundraisers and donors answered in a big way, raising more than $1.2 million for a brand new drilling rig fleet.
And today… we have exciting news! We were expecting to drill the
first well with the new rig in May of this year. But Founder Scott
Harrison was just in Ethiopia and… the first drilling rig arrived early!
Take a look at how your support is already helping bring life’s most basic need to people in Ethiopia.
We’re so grateful for your support of our work, our partners’ work, and
our mission to end the water crisis. Thank you, September Campaign
supporters! And stay tuned: as promised, we’re getting the GPS device
set up in this rig soon so you can track its progress from village to
village.
Gladys Nagawa is a Project Officer at
UWASNET in Kampala, Uganda. Here she talks about their participation in
the World Walks for Water and Sanitation
On 22nd March 2012, Uganda joined the rest of the world to Walk for
Water and Sanitation. UWASNET organised Walks in the districts of
Kanungu, Otuke, Kabarole and Busia. The walks involved participants
from the rural communities and included women, children and older
people.
The
walks were a distance of 2 to 3 km. The aim was to symbolize the long
distances that the communities, in particular the women and children,
have to cover looking for clean and safe water. We wanted to draw the
attention of policy makers and decision makers to this appalling
situation as well as increasing public awareness and support.
We are pleased that over 850 people joined the walk in Kannugu, including 300 children!
UWASNET,
with support from WaterAid Uganda, also developed a civil society
petition that we presented at the Otuke and Kanungu District events. We
called for political and funding commitment to water and sanitation. We
also asked for the inclusion of water and sanitation in plans to
ensure health, nutrition and education for all if we are to meet
Millennium Development Goal 7. The Minister for Water and Environment
joined the event and gladly endorsed the commitments with a signature.
Antoinette Uwimana fetches water from the newly installed water tap.
The channels, which will provide safe drinking water, were
commissioned by a water and sanitation project, known by its French
acronym as PEPAPS.
James Sano, the Deputy Director General in charge of water and
sanitation at the Rwanda Energy, Water and Sanitation Authority (EWSA),
observed that the government has put much efforts in increasing access
to safe and clean water.
“We are still working tirelessly to ensure that every citizen in this
country has access to safe drinking water,” he said during the launch.
He urged residents to protect and safeguard the facilities for their own interest.
An area resident, Antoinette Uwimana from Akaboti Cell, in Kansi Sector of Gisagara District, was among the beneficiaries.
“We used to travel long distances before we could reach a water point
and once there, we had to wait for long hours as there were always a
lot of people,” he said.
Apart from health and hygienic enhancement, area residents said the
new channels would help them spend less time in search of water, thus
engaging more on productive activities.
They noted that the lack of
clean water within the vicinity of their homesteads affected them in
many ways.
“Our children used to miss classes as they had to go looking for
water but they now spend a few minutes,” commented Celestin Minani, an
area resident.
“These water networks will also impact on improving hygienic
conditions among the population and contribute a lot in reducing the
number of people affected by diseases related to poor hygiene.”
Charles Hatungimana, the Director of College Saint Joseph de Kansi,
welcomed the development noting that this would help the school to spend
less money on water.
“We habitually paid bicycle riders to bring us water, which cost us
about Rwf30,000 a day. We hope to save that money and use it in
developing the school,” he said.
PEPAPS is a programme co-funded by the Government of Rwanda, Belgium
and the European Union, and operates in the Southern Province. It deals
with water conveyance, hygiene and sanitation promotion in Huye,
Gisagara and Nyaruguru districts.
A recent Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategies
(EDPRS) report indicated that access to clean water increased from about
64 per cent in 2006 to over 74 per cent in 2011. The target is to have
all the population access clean water by 2017.
Left to right (standing): Alex Mwaki, Principal Manager Safe Water
Systems at CARE Kenya, Dr. Greg Allgood, Director P&G Children's
Safe Drinking Water Program, and Stephen Opondo, Head Teacher at St.
Linus Nzoia Primary School. (Photo: Business Wire)
Announced today at a ceremony hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, the Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) and leading humanitarian
organization, CARE plan to provide more than 100 million liters of clean
drinking water in Kenya and Ethiopia through an investment of over $1
million dollars. The organizations came together on World Water Day to
announce the grant and to celebrate the milestone of the 100th
school in Kenya provided with clean drinking water through their
partnership, which focuses on enabling students to be agents of change.
In addition, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced P&G’s
commitment to the newly formed US Water Partnership, a public-private
effort to unite and mobilize expertise and resources to address water
challenges around the globe. P&G will sit on the 2012 Steering Committee
of the US Water Partnership and continue to focus efforts on sharing
clean drinking water through partnerships like the CARE schools program.
“Introducing the P&G water purification packets to a community through
school programs has a dramatic impact,” explained Greg Allgood, Director
of the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program. “Children are
empowered by the ability to transform their drinking water, and take
that knowledge home to their families. By investing in children, we
enable them to make a difference every day in their communities.”
The collaboration was initiated in Kenya in 2007 to explore ways to
provide clean drinking water and teach simple hand washing behaviors to
students. CARE trains two teachers in each school as patrons of the
program in that school. Patrons are responsible for teaching improved
hygiene behaviors, including hand washing, either directly or through
school hygiene clubs. The program provides over 17,000 liters of clean
drinking water each day to students and their families. Today, the
program celebrates bringing clean water and sanitation education to St.
Linus Nzoia Primary School in western Kenya.
"P&G and CARE have brought us a way to have clean water,” Said Stephen
Opondo, Head Teacher at St. Linus Nzoia. “We are very pleased that now
we will have healthy school children free of dysentery.”
An evaluation of the program identified a reduction in school
absenteeism of more than 25%, and because students took the messages
home, there was nearly a 3-fold increase in household water treatment.
“P&G purification water packets are an effective way to bring clean
water to people,” explains Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE USA.
“CARE uses the P&G packets to bring safe drinking water to homes in
Ethiopia, and in Kenya we use them to provide clean water to school
children, to support expectant mothers in remaining healthy and to help
prevent the spread of disease, including HIV/AIDS.” She added “They are
also an important part of our global emergency response programs.”
The collaboration announced today will support CARE’s distribution of
P&G water purification packets to reach over 350,000 people through
community-based programs in schools and clinics in Kenya and in areas
affected by severe drought in Ethiopia. The effort will also
pre-position packets for emergency response.
“The work being done through this partnership is a perfect example of
our company’s Purpose in action,” said Stanislav Vecera, Vice President
for P&G South & East Africa. “P&G improves the lives of Africans through
its innovative brands, dedicated employees, and educational and social
programs made possible by partnership with others."
School, clinic and community programs and disaster response are part of
P&G’s long-term commitment to save one life every hour by providing
purified water around the world. These efforts were most recently
recognized by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who presented P&G
with the Award for Corporate Excellence for improving the lives of
consumers in Nigeria and Pakistan. To date, CSDW and its partners have
shared over 4.5 billion liters of clean water and estimate more than
24,000 lives have been saved.
About Procter & Gamble and CSDW
P&G touches and improves the lives of about 4.4 billion people around
the world with its portfolio of trusted, quality brands. The Company's
leadership brands include Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®,
Pantene®, Mach3®, Bounty®, Dawn®, Fairy®, Gain®, Pringles®, Charmin®,
Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Oral-B®, Duracell®, Olay®, Head &
Shoulders®, Wella®, Gillette®, Braun®, Fusion®, Ace®, Febreze®, and Ambi
Pur®. With operations in about 80 countries, P&G brands are available in
more than 180 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com
for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.
The P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW) is a non-profit
initiative that has provided more than four and a half billion liters of
clean drinking water to people in need since 2004. CSDW has partnered
with a diverse network of organizations to help distribute water
purification packets in developing countries. To learn more about the
P&G CSDW Program, and see how the water purification packets work,
please visit www.csdw.org.
About CARE
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package, CARE is a leading
humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special
focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with
the proper resources, they have the power to lift whole families and
entire communities out of poverty.
Our six decades of experience show that when you empower a girl or
woman, she becomes a catalyst, creating ripples of positive change that
lift up everyone around her. That's why girls and women are at the heart
of CARE's community-based efforts to improve education, health and
economic opportunity for everyone. We also work with girls and women to
promote social justice, respond to emergencies and confront hunger and
climate change. Last year CARE worked in 84 countries and reached 122
million people around the world. To learn more, visit www.care.org.
