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November 2009 issue

 

 

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FEATURE
Charity Battles Water Problems
Through Developing World Placements


BY BARRY LAVERICK, P.ENG.
& CYNTHIA DOUGHTY,  P.GEO.

THE POWER OF WATER
These children are among those in one of the African villages where the World Water Corps is active.

Around the world, 884 million people do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion are without adequate sanitation facilities. Every day, nearly 6,000 people die from water-related illnesses, with the majority being children.

These numbers can be immobilizing if we think about them. Each day the number of people dying from a water-related illness is equivalent to the student population of about 10 community-sized primary schools.

In the developed world, apathy is often viewed as an act of self-preservation. The scope of such a tragedy is overwhelming, especially without a meaningful mechanism for change.

Well, Water For People has now given our industry the mechanism to make meaningful change. It’s called the World Water Corps, or WWC for short.

Water For People helps inhabitants of developing countries improve their quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities, and health and hygiene education programs. Our vision is a world where all people have access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and where no one suffers or dies from a water or sanitation-related disease.

Historically, Water For People has operated in Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Malawi and India, but recently we have expanded our operations into Ecuador, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Uganda, the Dominican Republic and Peru.

In 2006 Water For People launched WWC. It is Water For People’s volunteer program, giving water and wastewater professionals the opportunity to travel abroad and support the development of sustainable drinking water projects, sanitation projects and hygiene education programs.

The corps is now working on program evaluation, monitoring, mapping and baseline assessment. In 2010, it will begin working on hydrology.

This is a mechanism for water and wastewater professionals to become intimately involved in alleviating suffering among some of the world’s poorest people. The World Water Corps carries out the work critical to implement or support water, sanitation and hygiene projects, and also serves as a conduit of knowledge and skills between the developed world and the developing world.

In carrying out his or her work, the WWC volunteer travels dirt roads; often has to hike trails and up and down mountains to reach remote areas; is exposed first-hand to the hardships of life in rural villages; tastes the dust; smells the ubiquitous smoke from cooking fires; and meets local children often dressed in rags or nothing at all.

The WWC volunteer enters a community on the community’s terms. He or she laughs at the villagers’ jokes (which are often at the volunteer’s expense); works alongside local professionals within the host country; and sees first-hand the overwhelming need for this kind of work. See side bar, left, for an account of a WWC volunteer who undertook work in Rwanda.

The WWC is not for everyone, but if you feel you have what it takes, we need you. Often, days are difficult, and dealing with conditions in some of the poorest areas of the world can be physically and mentally straining. However, if you are up to the challenge we guarantee an experience you will never forget.

Barry Laverick, P.Eng., works in the Greater Toronto Area and has travelled to Malawi for WWC. Cynthia Doughty, P.Geo., is a volunteer with the International Programs Committee for Water for People Canada.

“I’ve been assigned the task of spreading the word about WWC to Canadians,” says Ms. Doughty. “I have help, but we are all in Ontario and Quebec. I would like to involve people from across Canada and get people from other provinces to volunteer with WWC.”

 

A Few Words From the Field
Editor’s Note: Below are the comments of one Canadian volunteer with the World Water Corps — Ontario engineer Chris Rogers, P.Eng.

The sole Canadian volunteer on this placement in Rwanda, I had the pleasure of working with a hard-working group of Americans and Belgians over a very intense two-week period in February 2009. We were each assigned a university student (all orphans of the genocide), a group of local officials, and a sector in Kicukiro district.

Our days were spent in the field, inspecting water and sanitation facilities, and interviewing community leaders and members of the local population. Our nights were spent documenting our observations.

Our field work exposed us to a range of generally miserable living conditions, from rural areas on the outskirts of Kigali, to the slums of Kigali itself. Rwanda has the highest population density in Africa. The density of the entire country is higher than that of the City of Ottawa. There was a lot to cover in two weeks.

Rwanda generally has a lot of water, most of the year. Unfortunately, there are extensive shortages throughout the dry season, and contamination is also a major problem. Most of the population in Kicukiro gets water from community taps and uses some form of latrine, which is often shared among several households. These latrines are often poorly constructed and in horrendous condition.

The taps draw water from wells, or the water is piped in from a central source. Water quality is unreliable, with suspected contamination from latrines and other sources. Those who can afford to boil their drinking water do. Many who can’t get sick and tend to die young.

One day I was waiting for my sector driver to pick me up outside an orphanage when I was swarmed by about 30 kids on their way home from school. One pulled out a text book and began teaching me to count in Kinyarwanda. They laughed a lot as I stumbled from one to five.

 

More Info
World Water Corps
www.worldwatercorps.org
abritton@waterforpeople.org