In January, I traveled to Tanzania to document the work ThirstRelief International & SON International do to help bring access to clean water to people. It’s easy to see the World Water Crisis is real based on where many Tanzanians get water and what kind of water they are currently drinking, cleaning with, bathing in, etc. There are several different kinds of water sources available in Tanzania: some have access to piped water, some have access to rivers, ponds, water pumps, and some only have access to shallow wells. Sometimes they only have one option: whatever is closest. No matter how dirty the water is, it may be their only access point. Even piped water isn’t purified or safe to drink because the water sources are contaminated by open defecation, animal feces or other pollutants. Human bodies are made up of about 60% water and we need it to live. We need water to drink, to clean and to cook. We need it for everything. “At least 1.8 billion people use a drinking-water source contaminated with feces,” according to the World Health Organization. This is largely because “663 million people rely on unimproved sources, including 159 million dependent on surface water,” and “Contaminated water can transmit diseases such diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause 502,000 diarrhea deaths each year,” WHO states. The World Water Crisis affects the poorest people of our planet, namely those who live on less than $2 a day. Unsafe drinking water not only causes sickness, but it affects the general economy, the personal economy of families, it causes children to drop out of school and so it affects the education system and continues the cycle of poverty. So bringing people access to clean water through Bio-Sand Water Filters is the way ThirstRelief and SON International are working to bring life to people.
You can be a part of the solution in donating to bring change to people’s lives, to families and to entire villages and countries.
Donate to ThirstRelief International | Donate to SON International
