CLEAN WATER PROGRAM

About the Program

The need for clean water is global and ongoing. Without safe drinking water, thousands die from dehydration, starvation and diseases such as diarrhea. Primary water sources are often miles away, demanding long, tiring hikes to polluted streams, rivers or dangerous, hand-dug wells that carry bacteria and parasites. For as little as $50 per family we can provide clean water to a community.

Around the world today, 663 million people are without access to clean water. That’s one in ten people.

To get water, these 663 million people walk an average of six kilometres every day, spending six hours to get about eight litres of water. That water has just as good a chance of killing them as living without water. Half of the hospital beds in regions where clean water is scarce are filled with individuals who have contracted a waterborne illness from the pollution. Every year, 1.5 million children die simply because they do not have clean water.

Think of twenty people you know – maybe family, friends or co-workers. Two of those people now do not have access to clean water and one of those people is a child. Picture this child in your mind. They drink from the river that flows through their city. They know it’s dirty, but it’s either that or dying of dehydration. Every day, they get up early and walk three hours with two big milk jugs to the river, fill both, then walk three hours back. They spend so much time just getting water that they can’t stay in school. Six hours a day makes it hard to attend class, let alone do homework. Soon, they get sick with diarrhea from the bacteria in the water and you take your little friend to the hospital. The doctors do the best they can, but with half of the patients suffering from the same illness, medication is running out and staff are stretched thin. Unfortunately, your son, daughter, niece, nephew, this little child you brought to the hospital cannot recover from the damage done by the diarrheal illness and they die, one among millions.

Every year, A Better World aims to provide clean water for communities around the world, including Kenya, Bolivia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Afghanistan. In 2019, the goal is to build 10 water catchment systems, 5 shallow wells and 2 deep wells.

Clean water was listed as #6 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, but access to clean water does more than just provide a drink. With a safe source of water in a community, poverty and hunger levels fall and general health improves. Children are able to spend their day in school rather than walking for water and women and girls are safer without the dangerous journey to the rivers and streams.

Because A Better World has developed relationships with local businesses, your donation goes twice as far – wells can be drilled for only $10,000 – 50% of the regular cost. Once a water system is put in place, a small fee is charged for water usage, which is then reinvested in the community, resulting in continuing change.

To read more about past water program projects, choose from the list to the right.