Community Help for Drinkable Water

Mr. Grant thanked the members for inviting him to speak. Brain worked, as an adult, at the Salvation Army in Los Angeles, and was raised in Brazil.

A water crisis worldwide means that every 20 seconds a child dies from contaminated water.  The fact is that billions of people do not have access to clean water. Things we take for granted are at a crisis in parts of the world, especially in Africa.  Children carry water cans many miles to their homes.  This problem has a big impact on girls and young women, because of the lack of sanitary facilities. The journey for fetching water is dangerous, as the women and girls who gather the water are vulnerable to attacks.  Mothers accompany their daughters on the treks for water.   The mother is then away from the home and the other children.  It is estimated that a billion hours are spent daily fetching clean water.  In addition the people gathering the water have to know how to eliminate water born diseases, as even their water sources may be suspect.

LifeWater approaches the problem in different ways. Being a community driven organization, they support people so they can work together on teaching practices to fight for what is best for a community, an education on water to people so they can pass it on.  LifeWater has a program to train the trainers and are always looking for funds and volunteers.  Brian believes in the holistic and Christian approach. They make sure the solutions are relevant to the local needs and support the local culture.  They bring in educational trainers so they are appropriate to the community where the trainers are going.  The company provides education and curriculum.  It is a participatory model in that the trainers train others before they leave. This organization has projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (in Haiti and the Dominican Republic). 

The company is located in San Luis Obispo, with a training facility is near the airport. Volunteers are trained on equipment using a simple and thorough curriculum. White Water wants the communities they serve to be healthy both spiritually and emotionally.  They work with local strategic partners. Even with the delivery and workings of a shallow-well drilling rig there is education and training of the rig and that is what is provided. The local population is given the means to repair the equipment provided, to maintain their supply of water. Brian claimed that 50% of the hand pumps in use in Africa are broken. Because the local community doesn't see it as their own equipment, they don't run to fix it. LifeWater teaches them hand-pump repair techniques.

Good sanitation includes safe, clean latrines.  There must be hygiene education training; and there must be the importance of hand washing as well as using and managing safe drinking water sources.  Fact:  Most deaths occur because of drinking that kind of bad water.  LifeWater provides clean water points or provides people with the education on how to get clean water. The goal is to reduce the amount of people drinking and using bad water. 

You can become a white water field trainer.  You can help raise money in order to help others.  You may go on a field trip to see how this works.  LifeWater is in the process of organizing a campaign and are in need of partners and ambassadors.  They have engineers on staff as well as trainers.