| Join Our List |
 |
|
|
|
"More people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war. These deaths are an affront to our common humanity, and undermine the efforts of many countries to achieve their development potential"
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Statement on World Water Day, March 22, 2010 |
SAFE DRINKING WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT
| | Last year on March 22, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commemorated World Water Day by challenging the global community to use existing resources and know-how to prevent the millions of deaths caused each year by unsafe drinking water. A lack of clean water in developing communities causes huge economic losses, severe illness and--for children in particular--death. Every year, 2.2 million children die needlessly from drinking water contaminated with bacteria and disease. Cheap and effective water treatment solutions have existed for hundreds of years, making any child's death from unsafe water a preventable tragedy.
 | |
Nicaraguan water group inspects a chlorinator w/CTI volunteer Project Manager, Jorge Fernandez (center)
|
Preventing a Tragedy For the past ten years, Compatible Technology International (CTI) has been working with volunteer engineers and Nicaraguan citizens to treat the badly contaminated water supply in rural areas of the country. Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, second only to Haiti. Families living in rural Nicaragua are often forced to drink water polluted with animal waste and disease-causing pathogens that's collected from rivers, streams and rainwater. To address the problem with low-cost, locally accessible technology, CTI volunteer Charlie Taflin, a Senior Engineer at the Minneapolis Water Department, developed a water treatment system utilizing chlorine tablets and built from PVC piping. With help from local community water groups, CTI began building and installing the systems throughout rural Nicaragua.
Today, CTI's water chlorination program in Nicaragua provides clean water to 57 communities, serving approximately 36,000 people and counting. Each chlorinator site is supported by volunteer community water groups that are trained to install the chlorinator, maintain the correct chlorination levels, and collect money from the local community for replacing the chlorine tablets. The involvement of community groups helps foster local ownership of the equipment, which has been an essential component of the project's success and sustainability.
 | |
Nicaraguan community water groups are
trained to test for safe chlorine levels
|
Why Water? The water chlorination program in Nicaragua was CTI's first venture into water projects. Since 1981 CTI had been helping impoverished communities use simple tools to improve their livelihoods and the inclusion of water technology in the organization's arsenal was a natural next step. The economic benefits of providing developing communities with clean water are well documented. Beyond saving lives, clean drinking water gives communities significant health care savings, more productive work days, and increased school attendance. A recent study by the World Health Organization found that for every $1 invested in drinking water and sanitation, communities receive $3-34 in economic benefits.
Despite the proven impact clean water has on developing communities, funding water programs has been a low priority for official development agencies from the United States and domestic governments. Between 1997 and 2008, official development aid allocated to water programs fell from 8% to 5%. CTI's water chlorination program has been funded entirely by generous donations from individuals, corporations (Pentair), and community organizations (St. Paul area Rotaries). In absence of government funding, the development and deployment of CTI's innovative food and water devices relies on support from those who believe in moving the world's poorest "bottom billion" from dependency to self-sufficiency. If you or your civic group would like to support CTI's work around the world, please donate now, or contact our office for more information.
|
CLEAN WATER FOR LESS THAN $50
| |  CTI Challenges Student Engineers to Design an Affordable Water Treatment Device In partnership with the University of Saint Thomas's School of Engineering in St. Paul, MN, CTI has challenged five engineering (Mechanical and Electrical) seniors to develop a low-cost water purification device using tools and materials readily found in developing countries. In contrast with CTI's water chlorinator, which was designed for community water systems, the students are developing a system that can produce clean water for the day-to-day needs of a typical family in the developing world. Since the fall, the students have been designing a device that uses common table salt and electrolysis technology to create chlorine for killing E. coli and common pathogens from water sources found in developing countries. The next step will be for the students to build a prototype that can be human powered, is extremely durable and easy to use, and costs under $50. With funding from Cargill, the students plan to test their prototype in Rwanda this summer. |
WHERE INNOVATION BEGINS
| | |
CTI's Volunteer Drinking Water Development Team
Whereas man can go without food for three weeks or longer, man cannot go without water more than three days. Lack of safe drinking water is a constant problem in most developing countries and it is further exacerbated when natural catastrophes such as floods, typhoons or earthquakes occur as they do year after year after year. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water sources and that 80% of all illnesses are caused by water-borne diseases. Further, almost two million people die from diarrheal diseases annually. It is estimated that 94% of these deaths could have been avoided if clean drinking water were available.
The goal of the CTI's Drinking Water Development Team is to develop low cost, easy to use, non-electric devices that provide safe drinking water from virtually any contaminated surface water source. Currently, the Drinking Water Development Team is developing a portable water purifier that can be used both for emergency and non-emergency applications. We typically meet on the first Saturday of the month at the CTI offices from about 9:00 to 11:00 AM. Anyone interested in helping in any way should contact CTI offices and stand by for some hard and rewarding work.
John Buettner
Chair of CTI's Drinking Water Development Team
|
|
|
Compatible Technology International
CTI is a nonprofit organization that designs and distributes simple food and water technologies for the developing world. The introduction of CTI's simple tools helps impoverished families improve their nutrition and generate income, providing sustainable pathways out of hunger and poverty. For more information about CTI, visit www.compatibletechnology.org.
|
|
|
