Water = Life

Today is World Water Day. Water is needed to sustain life on three different levels. 1. The growth and development of our food, ie. agriculture, livestock and processing. 2. Maintance of our bodies, ie. cooking, cleaning, bathing, etc. 3. Drinking water. The first two take up the majority of the water we use. The third, drinking water, has a direct impact on our health and quality life. Consider the following facts.

Sufficient quality of water is critical to ensure a healthy environment and human health. The basic requirement per person per day is 20 to 40 liters of water free from harmful contaminants and pathogens for the purposes of drinking and sanitation, rising to 50 liters when bathing and kitchen needs are considered. In many countries, however, the amount of water required daily for drinking and sanitation is not provided in the required quality. Developing countries undergoing rapid urbanization suffer from lack of sewage treatment facilities which results in the contamination of drinking water, thus it becomes a major cause of illness (which impacts poverty and education) and death. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 4 billion cases of diarrhea each year in addition to millions of other cases of illness are associated with lack of access to water that is safe for human consumption. Per year 2.2 million people die as a result of diarrhea most of them are children under the age of five. Human health is severely impacted by water-related diseases (waterborne, water-washed, water-based, and water-related vector-borne infections) as well as by chemical pollution discharged to water. (UNWater.org/2010)

Honduras is no exception. Many villages have no clean water source. Often the water that is used for drinking has been contaminated by run off from pastures or even latrines. If there is a clean water source, it is often located some distance from the village requiring children and women to spend time carrying water. I have seen young children 4 and 5 years old carrying gallon jugs of water from as far away as half a mile.

I am writing about this because I have the opportunity to build from the ground up a new ministry in conjunction with Camino Global drilling wells to bring fresh water to villages in Honduras. This past weekend I was able to help drill a well using the portable drilling rig built specifically for this purpose by several men from Wisconsin. We are planning another one later this year and if all goes well, several more in the following months. In my next post I will showcase the rig and our experience with it.