Clean Water Project

Join us in helping to provide Clean Water for Kontonso

Kontonso is a rural village of about 1,000 people near our ODI 500 acres.  They need a clean water well for the village.  As the video shows, their current source of water is also the water they use for bathing and washing clothes.  Currently, it’s the cleanest water available.  Until now.

Quick Facts:

  • 844 million people do not have access to clean and safe water in Africa.

  • 37% of those people live in Sub-Saharan and as many in West Africa.

  • 159 million people drink water directly from surface sources, such as streams or lakes. 

First, did you know, that in Africa, 90% of household duties are carried out by women?  This includes gathering the family’s water, all the food preparation, and collecting the wood for cooking.  Women and girls in sub-Saharan and Ghana Africa spend about 40 billion hours on these activities. So much time is spent collecting water (every day) and keeping up with the household chores, and daily labor they might be paid for, there is no time for education.

Unfortunately, the water that people are spending hours a day collecting is the same water that is often making them sick. If the population living in a village does not have their own well or water supply, they collect water wherever they can find it. Depending on the season, rainy/monsoon or dry, these sources vary from open wells and irrigation canals to rivers, ponds, creeks, and streams. These sources are the same ones used to do laundry, bathe, and water animals. Sadly, these sources are often contaminated and water-borne disease spreads rapidly.

Second, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2 million people in Africa die from water-related illnesses each year. Most of these deaths come from children under the age of 5. Even if a child survives an illness like typhoid fever, they aren’t attending school while they fight to recover.  In fact, 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related illnesses in developing countries. That is a lot of missed educational opportunities for something as simple as clean water.

The benefits of improving the water quality by providing clean water to an entire village are easy to see. In fact, a government official serving in West Africa, remarked during the first rainy season that she was shocked the villages did not have a cholera outbreak.  Giving fresh water through newly bored wells eliminates common disease outbreaks.

So, when a new water well is drilled in a village, almost immediately, children can return to school and there is more time to take care of household activities including the ability to find a job, a job that will help with daily meals.

 

With clean water comes improved health which this leads to more days in school. And when this clean water is accessible, there is enough time for all children, boys, and girls, to attend their classes. More educational opportunities lead to better economic prospects. Better economic prospects lead to more stable families in the future. To put it simply, giving a village clean water helps to breaks the cycle of poverty by making education and life a little more possible for the children.

There is still a long way to go, but progress is being made.

Here’s how you can help:

  1. Donate to our Clean Water Project.

  2. Go to “Lift Up” and donate through our crowd source fundraising efforts.

  3. Have a clean water party with some of your friends.  ODI will provide the information and inspiration to your guest.  And yes, we will ask gently for donations.

  4. Introduce us to churches, community groups, individuals who would be interested in helping a village in Ghana with Clean Water!

  5. Call our Exeuctive Director, Kathy Sullivan, for a speaking engagement to your church, community, or business.