Water Crisis
As American Rotarians, for the most part, we take pure, clean water for granted. In fact, in 1972 then President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Water Act, guaranteeing that every American has a legal right to clean, safe drinking water piped right to their home and businesses. Accordingly, this Clean Water Act was the loudest declaration of human rights we’ve ever had since 1776 or 1863.
For the most part Americans still receive the benefits of clean water. Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not have that guarantee. Throughout the world, every 20 seconds someone dies from a water-borne disease. Many of the deaths are from children under the age of 5, and seniors.
H2OpenDoors works tirelessly to connect with countries in all parts of the world to work together to arrange for a purified water system brought to their country, installed and operational in pumping out at least 10,000 liters of water per day or more. Equally important, representatives from these countries are trained in how to operate these systems, and to regularly provide the maintenance needed to keep the water flowing daily. The rural poor often pay over 1/3 of their daily income for bottled water.
A growing number of regions and major cities are suffering from water scarcity. Drilling into the aquifers are no longer the automatic answers for those that are facing encroaching Day Zero dates when the utilities shut off all water flow. These areas must quickly reuse water in a vibrant “toilet-to-tap” approach.
The SunSpring systems are a perfect answer in many applications, as the membrane technology removes all bacteria, cysts and viruses, leaving the source water 99.99% microbiologically pure.
Water Borne Diseases
In 2021 our Santa Cruz Rotary Club wrote a District grant for a Wallspring water purification project installed at the Esquintla Regional pediatric hospital, where they lost 5-6 babies every month to E-coli in the hospital water. That is not happening anymore because we fixed that!
You may recall a time when you or a loved one visited another Country and came down with “Montezuma’s revenge” or whatever the local version of that affliction is. The experience can be devastating for the individual, and not a memory we often choose to share. But what if it was your child or grandchild who was afflicted, and because of their small body mass, recovery was very difficult. What if you and your family lived on only a few dollars a day, and hospital treatment for repeat bouts with the debilitation that ensues, was an option that competed with the required food and housing for your whole family?
The sad truth is that 1.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe Drinking water. (UN GLASS report 2014), and the daily death toll of 1600 children worldwide from water borne disease is what past RI Director Brad Howard calls “outrageous and fixable”.
Our Rotary Foundation has established Water and Sanitation as one of our six highest corporate priorities, and the fact that Rotary is on the ground in over 200 Counties with 1.2 million members worldwide, means we are uniquely poised to fix safe drinking water challenges with the help of our District and Global Grants.
If you would like to help save infants and dramatically improve community health in rural villages of emerging countries, please join us, and together, we can make a world of difference.