Hello! Welcome to our new blog! If you have been checking out our website you may have noticed that we have done something a little unusual, that along with information on the products we sell and install, we have included information to help educate our clients about the Global Water Crisis affecting over 884 million people on this earth, lack of clean water. While we enjoy seemingly endless supplies of fresh water (the average North American uses 400 litres of fresh water a day!) a child dies every 15 seconds from water borne disease and lack of clean water. We feel a responsibility (and we hope you do too) to care for the lost and thirsty, to help provide life-giving water to our brothers and sisters all over the world. We have chosen Living Water International because of the excellent work they do. Since LWI started, they’ve completed more than 10,000 water projects for communities in 26 countries. They provide training programs in shallow well drilling, pump repair, and hygiene education to volunteers and professionals. LWI partners with MeSoap to help provide soap, hygiene training, toilets, water, and other needed sanitation and hygiene supplies to communities in need. This partnership began in Sierra Leone, the country with the world’s second-highest infant mortality rate.
As Christians, we have chosen Living Water International not only because they demonstrate the love of God physically, by giving desperate communities essential clean water, but most importantly they help the thirsty to experience true “living water”- the gospel of Jesus Christ- which alone quenches the deepest thirst. By meeting both physical and spiritual needs LWI empowers people, builds up communities, and brings an end to cycles of disease and desperation.
Again, we welcome you to our new blog and website, and we hope you find what you’re looking for. If nothing else, please check out Living Water International, and see the amazing work they are doing to serve those less fortunate.
Here are two articles from the LWI website for those who are interested to learn more about the Global Water Crisis and the devastating cycle of poverty for people in need of clean water...
*photo courtesy of Living Water International- www.water.cc
LIVING WATER INTERNATIONAL KEY FACTS
• 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world’s population. (WHO-UNICEF)
• 1.8 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to around 5000 deaths a day. (UNDP)
• LWI projects providing safe water and hygiene education at an average cost of twenty dollars per person, for a generation. (LWI)
• The simple act of washing hands with soap and clean water can reduce diarrheal diseases by over 40%. (UNICEF)
• Providing water and hygiene education reduces the number of deaths caused by diarrhoeal diseases by an average of 65%. (WHO)
• Water-related disease is the second biggest killer of children worldwide, after acute respiratory infections like tuberculosis. (UNDP)
• The weight of water that women in Africa and Asia carry on their heads is commonly 40 pounds, the same as the average airport luggage allowance. (UNDP)
• Water and sanitation infrastructure helps people take the first essential step out of the cycle of poverty and disease.
WATER-RELATED DISEASES
• At any given time, half the population of the developing world is suffering from one or more of the main diseases associated with inadequate provision of water and sanitation. (UNDP)
• At any one time, half of the developing world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-related diseases. (UN)
• Around 90% of incidences of water-related diseases are due to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene and is mostly concentrated on children in developing countries. (WHO)
• Intestinal worms infect about 10% of the population of the developing world. Intestinal parasitic infections can lead to malnutrition, anaemia and stunted growth. (WHO)
WATER USE
• The average North American uses 400 liters a day. European uses 200 liters. (UNDP)
• The average person in the developing world uses 10 liters of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. (Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC))
• On current trends over the next 20 years humans will use 40% more water than they do now. (UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
• Agriculture accounts for over 80% of the world’s water consumption. (UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
EDUCATION AND ECONOMY
• 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related diseases. (UNDP)
• 11% more girls attend school when sanitation is available. (DFID)
• 40 billion working hours are spent carrying water each year in Africa. (Cosgrove and Rijsberman 1998)
• Households in rural Africa spend an average of 26% of their time fetching water, and it is generally women who are burdened with the task. (DFID)”*
* article courtesy of Living Water International- www.water.cc
“A Global Crisis Water. It is at the heart of a daily crisis faced by a billion of the world’s most vulnerable people—a crisis that threatens life and destroys livelihoods on a devastating scale.
Unlike war and terrorism, the global water crisis does not make media headlines, despite the fact that it claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns. Unlike natural disasters, it does not rally concerted international action, despite the fact that more people die each year from drinking dirty water than from the world’s hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes combined.
This is a silent crisis experienced by the poor, and tolerated by those with the resources, technology, and the political power to end it. Yet this is a crisis that is holding back human progress, consigning large segments of humanity to lives of poverty, vulnerability, and insecurity.
At Living Water International, we are addressing this most basic of needs by helping deprived communities acquire safe, clean water. Our goal is to substantially ease the global water crisis while addressing root causes such as injustice, oppression, and abject poverty. As this happens, communities and worldviews are transformed—both among those in desperate physical need, and among those who have been blessed with much.”
*article courtesy of Living Water International- www.water.cc
