NEWS

March 2024

Living with drought and flood

One of nature's harshest ironies occurs where communities without regular access to clean, safe drinking water are located in areas subject to sudden floods.  For much of the time, collecting drinking water may require daily treks of several miles, and their land may be parched and barren, allowing for only the meagrest levels of subsistence agriculture.  Then - often without warning - this same land is suddenly swamped by monsoon rains, swollen rivers, run-off cascades from surrounding mountains, or surge tides of seawater.

When the rains come, the communities are unable to benefit because the waters hit too fast and in too great a volume, sweeping away infrastructure, destroying crops and drowning livestock.  And where the sea waters come, so also comes excess salination.   Sudden floods typically contaminate or sweep away any existing but flimsy fresh water supply and sanitation facilities, allowing diseases to quickly take hold and spread in their wake.   

And when the flood waters subside, the survivors only have the resources to rebuild the insubstantial structures as before, knowing they will only last until the next time. 

Some of the most important contemporary international water projects are tackling these issues by installing equipment in affected communities such as rain-harvesting apparatus to gather high volume rainwater before it hits the ground and turns to mud, high capacity underground rainwater tanks to store the harvested rainwaters, filtration and processing plant to enable controlled tapping off of safe drinking water, and brick-built toilet and washing facilities with concrete foundations which can withstand storm conditions.  Such installations not only secure safe drinking water and sanitation for their communities, they also enable these peoples to plan, organise and make progress with their lives rather than being trapped in a constant cycle of decimation and recovery, a continuous battle both for and against water.  A further benefit is to relieve the pressure on medical services and relief agencies as these communities can then grow healthier and more resilient.


As this year's World Water Day approaches - Friday 22 March 2024 - we urge everyone to consider the plight of the millions of people without access to clean, safe drinking water, and to do anything possible, no matter how small, to support the many great projects dedicated to bringing clean, safe water to the world.

September 2023

Crisis

It's a word we encounter now in nearly every news bulletin.

The CLIMATE CRISIS is causing longer-lasting droughts and more ferocious floods.
The hardest hit - and typically poorest - parts of the world are either facing increasingly diminishing water supplies, or having their fragile water systems overwhelmed by contaminating flood waters.

The peoples worst affected are often those who have done least to cause the changing climate, and who are in the weakest position to influence any meaningful response.
The REFUGEE CRISIS is all too often viewed as the political conundrum of how to stop migration to alleviate perceived pressure on destination countries.

But, of course, the real issues are the causes of people fleeing their homelands in the first place.

These are many and varied, but a primary one is access to clean, fresh water and sanitation.

Without such access, humans cannot survive, so if your water source dries up, is impregnated by disease, or is denied to you by political or military conflict, you must move on.

In some way or other, nearly every crisis is a WATER CRISIS.

Despite the many amazing initiatives across the globe to bring fresh water and hope to thousands of grateful communities, we are at worst fighting a losing battle, and at best only treading water.

As a direct result of the fallout of many other CRISES, great swathes of land - home to millions - are being drawn into the WATER CRISIS.

Every single person on Earth should have the right to fresh, clean, safe water, just as much as to the air we need to breathe. As a global community, this right needs to be at the heart of our thinking, our planning, our decision making and our education.

WATER is LIFE.

May 2022

Groundwater - so near, yet so far

"Groundwater" is the water contained within rocks and soil beneath the surface of the ground, the top level of which is often referred to as the water table. Groundwater exists pretty much everywhere - even in a parched and arid landscape, there will typically be water present not too far beneath the surface. In the Kalahari Desert, the old indigenous bush dwellers of the San people were known for their extraordinary ability to sense the presence of groundwater where it comes closest to the surface and to make drinking straws from natural desert vegetation with which to pierce the sandy topsoil and suck water out from beneath.

In developed countries, groundwater is typically a greater source of drinking water than many imagine. According to website groundwater.org the United States derives over 50% of its drinking water from these subterranean sources, while in rural areas, that can go up as high as 99%. And, of course, groundwater also provides a valuable source of water for irrigation and thus for growing crops. Throughout the continent of Africa, geological surveys indicate there is sufficient groundwater for most countries to survive a minimum of five years of drought, while in some areas there may be enough groundwater to sustain the population for 50 years or more. And yet, in many of those same areas - outlying regions of Ethiopia, Mali and Niger for example - people are falling ill or dying every day through lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Conversely, in swathes of south Asia, an excessive exploitation of groundwater without proper management has caused extensive problems of contamination and pollution, which can have equally devastating consequences. 

Projects to tap into groundwater sources and create sustainable supplies of clean, safe water are relatively inexpensive, both in terms of the equipment needed to sink boreholes or wells and bring water to the surface, and the infrastructure to distribute and utilise the drawn water. But it is critical that it is done in a properly managed and co-ordinated way so that communities that benefit from accessing the groundwater beneath their feet do not then go on to contaminate it with excessive or incorrect use of fertilisers and pesticides on crops growing in their newly irrigated land, or by mismanaging the output from their new sanitation systems. The entire process must be carefully managed, but where there is a will to succeed backed by a good working relationship between governments, aid agencies, equipment suppliers and installers, and local project managers, new safe water supplies can quickly be brought to desperate communities to secure their long-term futures.

October 2021

Shortages cause PANIC!!!

Here in the UK right now we have shortages - shortages of fuel for our cars, and shortages of some foods on our supermarket shelves, with predictions the situation may get worse before it returns to normal. The widespread response to this has been PANIC BUYING - people rushing out in droves, queuing to fill the tanks of their cars in case they might need to drive somewhere, filling their cupboards and freezers with canned and frozen foods for fear of the diminishing vast range of dietary options usually available to us.  It's an understandable reaction - sure - and our politicians are quick to assure us it's temporary, to assure us they will resolve these crises in the coming weeks and all will return to "normal". 

But... imagine if your "normal" routine, every day of your life, is to wake up and wonder if you will get any clean water this day. Water - that most basic essential for life along with the air we breathe. You set off on the daily trek to a source you hope will not have dried up, and not have become contaminated. You don't PANIC because this is your daily reality, as it has been throughout your life. Sometimes there will be days when there is no water, perhaps several days, but you still don't PANIC because you've been here before. You have to go with it, conserve energy as best you can, put up with the searing headaches and draining fatigue of dehydration. And you wait, and hope, for the day you can get water again. And so life goes on... hopefully.

Even while our petrol pumps stand empty and we find gaps on our supermarket shelves, we absolutely take it for granted that we will turn on our kitchen taps and clean, fresh, safe water will pour forth. So, please let us maintain perspective here. Let us never forget the hundreds of millions of people on this Earth who do not have ready access to clean, safe water, and let us always strive as a global community to make water available to all - a right, not a privilege.

March 2021

Life on Mars? 

The American 'Rover' explorer has landed on the surface of the 'Red Planet'. There has been much eulogising over the ambition of this project, the technical brilliance involved, the extraordinary achievement, the further stretching of the boundaries of human ingenuity. The ultimate goal of the mission is, of course, to find 'life on Mars', for which the Holy Grail would be for Rover to discover any current, or even past, evidence of water.

While the scientists dream of finding water on Mars, some 785 million people still dream of finding clean, safe water here on Earth [current figure published by WaterAid].  While the scientists pursue their quest to shape the future for humanity, we - as a global community - must not lose sight of the urgent need to secure its present. 

There are many wonderful projects being implemented at this moment to bring safe water and sanitation to outlying communities, but such projects are needed in greatly increased quantity and scale. This should be our planet's priority and every one of us can play our part. Donations to support the work of charities dedicated to this field are vital, but even more important is that the provision of clean, safe water and sanitation be urgently pushed to the top of the public agenda worldwide and kept there for as long as it takes.

Water = Life on Earth.

September 2020

Covid-19 - the water issue

The threat posed by Covid-19 remains headline news across the world and 'expert predictions' are widespread that it will be another six to twelve months at least before it can realistically be brought under control. 

This is frightening to those of us who live with clean, safe water on tap and good sanitation facilities, but must be terrifying to the millions who still do not have access to this basic human need. 

According to Wateraid, ONE in every FOUR health centres globally does not have access to a supply of clean, safe water.

This not only directly endangers both the sick and the medical staff on the front line, but also causes major disruption and delays to international efforts to bring pandemics under control - so ultimately the world suffers. 

At Water Incorporated we continue working towards the launch of our WashIF programme while, at the same time, urging everyone to support initiatives to bring clean, safe water to the world.

March 2020

Covid-19 ... have you washed your hands?

With the international community in the grip of the Coronavirus pandemic, one of the main guidelines for both personal and communal protection being issued by the World Health Organisation and governments across the planet is to greatly increase the frequency and thoroughness with which we all wash our hands.

Why? Well yes, it's obvious, and we all know... it removes germs and significantly lessens the risk of spreading infection. All very well for those of us who have ready access to clean, safe, running water in our homes, our workplaces and in many public facilities.

But this virus is now reaching areas of our planet where people have no access to clean, safe water. They live their lives in daily risk of contracting disease from either contaminated water or lack of water. And now Coronavirus brings a whole new threat, both directly to these people, and to global efforts to stem the flow of the disease.

Clean, safe water is life. Please continue to support initiatives to bring clean, safe water to the whole world. Thank you.

October 2019

International Day of the Girl Child

Friday 11 October is this year's International Day of the Girl Child. Launched by the United Nations in 2012, its purpose surely needs no explanation.

Of course, the need to diminsh gender inequality worldwide goes far beyond water-related issues, but nevertheless this is a key day on the calendar for all those working toward improving global access to clean water and safe sanitation.

There are many parts of the world which clean water and sanitation facilities have yet to reach where the daily duty of collecting water for the family falls on its daughters who both miss out on their education and can suffer consequential health problems from the excessive trekking and carrying. Furthermore, lack of clean water and absence of proper toilet facilities exacerbate hygiene issues for girls when they start menstruation.

So, we ask you please to recognise this important date on the calendar, and to continue whatever you may do to support and promote safe water and sanitation projects. Thank you.

March 2018

World Water Day

Please support World Water Day.

This doesn't require you to do anything much out of your normal routine, EXCEPT...

...stop and think every time you reach for the tap.

World Water Day takes place on 22 March each year and is an initiative of the United Nations. It encourages those of us lucky enough to live in societies where water flows readily from our kitchen and bathroom taps to use those taps as little as possible.

Short of subjecting yourself to dehydration, if you would like to support WWD, please use your taps as little as possible, encourage others to do the same, and try to imagine living without access to fresh, safe, running water at the turn of a handle.

World Water Day is all about raising awareness that there are still millions of people in our world who at best devote much of every day to collecting the minimum quantity of water they need to survive, and at worst risk disease and death from only having access to contaminated water, or at times not being able to source water at all.

Each year the UN gives WWD a different theme, and this year it is "Nature for Water". This is looking at environmental damage which is bringing about alarming growth in the level of water-related crises - floods, droughts, water pollution, soil degradation, and so on. To find out more, and to discover potential solutions, visit www.worldwaterday.org

Should you be inspired to make a donation and/or get involved, please note that here at Water Incorporated, we neither take direct donations nor manage projects ourselves. We have our very specific WashIF programme - explained here on our website - which we are preparing to launch. But there are established organisations out there doing great work in the field, and you can find some useful contacts on our "Links" page.


 

November 2016

Great news from WaterAid - 9 in 10 now have access to clean, safe water

Leading UK water charity WaterAid has announced that "for the first time in history, 9 in 10 people around the world can now drink clean, safe water".

This is fantastic news, and is the result of the great progress being made by volunteers, fundraisers, charitable organisations and government bodies around the globe.

BUT, of course - as WaterAid is quick to point out - this still leaves an estimated 650 million people in the world WITHOUT ready access to clean, safe water, so there is still a huge amount of work to be done.

For those of us born and brought up in homes with safe water on tap and the shelves of local stores laden with an abundance of bottled mineral waters, it is almost unimaginable to have to walk miles every day for no reason other than to collect a drink, or worse still to have no option but to drink filthy, contaminated water risking disease and death with every sip.

Here at Water Incorporated we're hoping to soon be much closer to launching our WashIF programme and making our contribution to the drive to ensure that everyone has access to clean, safe water. Please watch out for our progress, and meanwhile, if you wish to support active safe water projects, you can find some useful information on our "Links" page.