High ten­sion as com­mu­ni­ties in Haiti need clean water in the days after the 2010 earth­quake. A reminder of the human­i­tar­ian aid needed for World Water Day.

In the hours after the Haiti earth­quake, World Con­cern took an inven­tory of the basic needs fac­ing peo­ple who had lost every­thing. Food, water and shel­ter were the top three. But when it came right down to it, water was the sin­gle great­est need. Within a few days, peo­ple would be fight­ing for their lives — des­per­ate for a drink.

When I vis­ited Port-au-Prince a week after the quake, one of the most tense moments I encoun­tered was a fight about water. Peo­ple wanted it, and we were try­ing to meet the need as best we can. But the need was too great. Water truly equals life and sur­vival.

Today is World Water Day. If you have the oppor­tu­nity to run the tap and receive clean water today, con­sider your­self priv­i­leged. One in six humans have to live using an unclean source for drink­ing water. It means they walk miles to get a drink, and water­borne dis­eases like typhoid and intesti­nal par­a­sites become a part of their lives.

In post-earthquake Haiti, bro­ken sewage lines inter­min­gled with water lines, mak­ing the water dan­ger­ous to drink. In places where we work in Africa, poor san­i­ta­tion leads to con­t­a­m­i­nated water sources. This con­t­a­m­i­nated water leads to dis­ease and par­a­sites, which slows learn­ing, stunts growth and pre­ma­turely kills mil­lions of people.

Only though com­mu­nity hygiene edu­ca­tion and improved water sources are we able to change the equa­tion. At first, it may be through an emer­gency sup­ply of bot­tled water, like in Haiti after the earth­quake. Longer-term, our human­i­tar­ian aid may include improv­ing water sys­tems, or even invent­ing them entirely, as we do in dozens of poor com­mu­ni­ties through­out the world.

For this World Water Day, you can change the life of some­one in des­per­ate need, by dig­ging a hand-dug well for $300, to ben­e­fit sev­eral fam­i­lies, or invest­ing in a machine-drilled well. A share is $100, the entire well is $3,000. It will will trans­form an entire vil­lage. (And with grants we get a 5:1 match on machine drilled wells in Kenya!)

So here’s to good health, and safe water — even to fam­i­lies in Haiti and in other hurt­ing places around the world.

Water wells in Kenya installed by human­i­tar­ian orga­ni­za­tion World Con­cern pro­vide hope to com­mu­ni­ties in Kenya suf­fer­ing from water-borne dis­ases. World Water Day brings aware­ness to the problem.

Sourced from: Humanitarian Aid and Relief

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