Philly groups help bring water to the world
In honor of World Water Day, we recognize some of the area's efforts
Today is World Water Day, an international observance designated by the UN to bring attention to the world's shrinking fresh water resources.
While we have plenty of water in this region - notwithstanding the need to manage it, as bundles of agencies do -- we also have active groups trying to help out elsewhere.
One of them is the Philadelphia Global Water Initiative, let by University of Pennsylvania's Stanley L. Laskowski, a lecturer/advisor in the master of environmental studies program.
"The bottom line statistic is that every 15 seconds someone in the world, usually a child who has diarrhea, dies of a water-related problem. This means that over 4000 children die each day [more children than from malaria, HIV/Aids, and measles combined," he writes.
In honor of the day, and the work being done, I'm passing along his summary of some projects:
A Spring of Hope was founded by University of Pennsylvania sophomore when she was still in High School and they have provided water for schools in South Africa and now are moving into Uganda. http://www.aspringofhope.org/
Traveling Mercies was founded by Aldo Magazzeni, a Chester County resident, and they have provided safe water in Afghanistan, Kenya, Haiti, and other countries http://www.travelingmercies.org
Keiyo Soy Ministries was founded by Dr Elijah Korich, a Kenyan-American in North Philadelphia. They have supplied water to villages in Kenya. http://ksmministries.com/
The Engineers Without Borders Chapter at the University of Pennsylvania has done water supply work in Cameroon, Honduras, and other places http://www.pennewb.org/international.php
Perhaps the most prolific work has been done by Dr Arun Deb, an Indian-American and former VP for Weston Solutions, from the West Chester area who has supplied clean water to over 200,000 people in India over the past 15 years.