water pumps outside Kalomo World Vision ADP office
2 million children under 5 in Asia, Africa and South America die each year from diarrhea. This is caused mainly by dirty water or food touched by dirty hands. Diseases caused by dirty water result in the deaths of more than 300 children every hour. More than one billion people (one-sixth of the world's population) lack safe drinking water and almost two billion are without adequate sanitation. Every day, an estimated 10,000 people in developing countries die from water-related diseases. That’s 6.9 people every minute. How many times have you turned on a tap or flushed your toilet today? You probably take the water supply to your house entirely for granted but millions of people aren’t so lucky. In developing countries a single trip to collect water can last up to six hours, often in stifling heat over difficult terrain. This arduous task often falls to women and children. Most women carry up to 25 litres and a child can carry up to 20 litres. Each litre weighs a kilo. Just to survive, a person needs 1.5 litres of water a day but the demands of climate, physical exertion and farming mean that people in developing countries often need 7-12 litres a day. Water may also be polluted. Up to 75% of all diseases in the Third World are water-related. Therefore safe water supplies closer to homes, better sanitation and health education are priorities for improving people’s lives.
World Vision through it’s sponsorship program helps children and their communities everyday, giving them access to clean water. Now World Vision has a new program - ‘Water is Everything’. Check out www.worldvision.ca/giftofwater
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