by our OSDW reporter
It’s the bill for bad water
The price is high – chronically sick children, fathers too ill to work and provide for their families, sick mothers unable to care of their kids. It includes 4,000 children a day who pay the highest price — their lives — due to bad water. (Unicef)
Susana suffers from chronic skin disease from bad water.
Worms and anemia have taken their toll on Esther.
One sip of this water and you can get worms, anemia, dysentery, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, hepatitis, leptospirosis, typhoid fever – among others.
But why should any child have to drink bad water where it rains so much?
The rain is there for the catching. The rain is free – but safe, clean water has a bill of its own
What’s the bill for safe,clean water?
The price is nothing in comparison, but does have some surprises.
Lack of sleep, for one.
Off at the crack of dawn for indigenous schools and villages on distant islands.
Unpaid -- if somewhat sleepy -- volunteers head out to distant islands. They have to be done and back before dark.
Gasoline
Lots of gasoline to get the safe water tanks to distant island-villages and schools.
Leaving the last island behind we head out into the open sea: Destination: schools on a remote Peninsula reachable only by sea.
Time
Much of it spent on hot zinc roofs installing piping for rain-catchment gutters. There’s no easy way to do it. It can be tough in the hot tropical sun, but it’s got to be done right, however long it tanks.
It’s hot up there! You go up on hot zinc roofs in the blazing tropical sun to fix the guttering pipes to the roof. You can’t rush, either. It’s got to be done right.
What else goes into a “water bill” for safe, clean water?
Our rain-catchment systems for schools and villages costs $900, and last for years. They refill with disease-free water every time it rains. They’re simple, low-maintenance and have only one moving part (the faucet). And they supply both the schools and surrounding villages with safe drinking water.
Over-all, the bill for safe water works out to be $20 a family per year.
A look at two water bills and how they stack up:
The price of bad water
Sickness, disease and early death for vulnerable children.
The price of safe,clean water
Lots of hard work by our volunteers – and $20 per year for a family’s safe drinking water.
Give children clean,safe water.
They can’t live without it.
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We live among the people we help.
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