Saving Millions of African Children… EAWAG Aquatic Research and SODIS Spearhead Innovative Solar Water Disinfection Projects in Kenyan Slums
In Africa and Asia, the access to clean water is very difficult and the problem is so immense especially in slum areas and this means that innovative ways of getting safe drinking water and environmental sanitation are urgently required. The SODIS foundation, which was recently awarded the “Water for Life Award” is saving millions of children living in slum area in Kenya’s and also the Africa’s biggest slums including Kibera, Mukuru-kwa-Njenga, Mathare and other slum dwelling places in the country. SODIS water sanitation project helps empower the society to be able to preserve and treat drinking water using simple effective methods such as the SODIS methods. Fundación SODIS has already educated close to 1.2 million people mainly women in solar water disinfection.
One of the challenges to attaining a sustainable health development is the non-innovative use of the resources the world is endowed with. The forests covers are being depleted as humans cut trees for economic and household use. Safe drinking water is becoming scarce and especially in the less developed and developing world. Children are dying of waterborne diseases such as cholera and diarrhea because of lack of clean drinkable water. Solar water disinfection is a modern and cost effect way of treating water and rendering it safe for drinking.
In Kenya, the project is gearing momentum and families from poor backgrounds are benefiting from these initiatives. Applause is given to organizations such as EAWAG aquatic research and SODIS. Research shows that when limited amount of water is exposed to sunlight for 24hours, the suns rays are able to penetrate and kill the germs and make the water fit for human consumption. For instance, putting clean water into a 3 litre transparent plastic bottle and exposing it to sunlight for a day or two days in cloudy weather kills germs in the water.
In the developing countries, more so in slum areas, clean water is so scarce and the little available drinking water quality is so poor that people are helplessly drinking untreated water thus exposing them to getting waterborne diseases. A good example is the contaminated and unsafe drinking water used in the slum areas of Africa where virtually the poor sewage systems contaminate this water. The slum areas do not have any formal sewage flows and water pipes are seen floating on the sewage wastes. With pipe bursts and leakages, the sewage wastes seep into the water pipes and contaminate the drinking water.
Without knowledge or with knowledge and out of negligence, people in the slum area use this water for drinking and other household purposes. It must be understood that life in the slums is a night mere and affording clean water is not perhaps a priority. In the developing countries have the notion that if they cannot get enough food to feed the family why would they be bothered anyway to get clean water? In these countries, more than half of the population lives on less than a dollar per day. In fact, even when exposed to the health and sanitation dangers, people continue to use untreated water.
With the help of the SODIS solar water disinfection, people are able to treat their drinking water in the most cost effective way possible. Surely, such innovations are required in the less developed countries since they reduce the cost of getting clean water, cases of water bone diseases and the household as well as national budget on disease treatments. What is needed is to educate the people on the benefits of using clean and safe water and the dangers of consuming untreated water.
The governments and NGOs must be seen moving hastily to provide clean and safe water to the people in the slum areas as well as offer community education on health and sanitation. The people must realize that a health community is a prosperous nation. People cannot work when they are sick due to using unsafe drinking water. The governments spend a lot of money in treating diseases, which could otherwise be avoided and that money channeled into other national development projects. The community must also understand that the money they use when caring for the sick and buying drugs for the ill people can be used for family development.
One of the challenges to attaining a sustainable health development is the non-innovative use of the resources the world is endowed with. The forests covers are being depleted as humans cut trees for economic and household use. Safe drinking water is becoming scarce and especially in the less developed and developing world. Children are dying of waterborne diseases such as cholera and diarrhea because of lack of clean drinkable water. Solar water disinfection is a modern and cost effect way of treating water and rendering it safe for drinking.
In Kenya, the project is gearing momentum and families from poor backgrounds are benefiting from these initiatives. Applause is given to organizations such as EAWAG aquatic research and SODIS. Research shows that when limited amount of water is exposed to sunlight for 24hours, the suns rays are able to penetrate and kill the germs and make the water fit for human consumption. For instance, putting clean water into a 3 litre transparent plastic bottle and exposing it to sunlight for a day or two days in cloudy weather kills germs in the water.
In the developing countries, more so in slum areas, clean water is so scarce and the little available drinking water quality is so poor that people are helplessly drinking untreated water thus exposing them to getting waterborne diseases. A good example is the contaminated and unsafe drinking water used in the slum areas of Africa where virtually the poor sewage systems contaminate this water. The slum areas do not have any formal sewage flows and water pipes are seen floating on the sewage wastes. With pipe bursts and leakages, the sewage wastes seep into the water pipes and contaminate the drinking water.
Without knowledge or with knowledge and out of negligence, people in the slum area use this water for drinking and other household purposes. It must be understood that life in the slums is a night mere and affording clean water is not perhaps a priority. In the developing countries have the notion that if they cannot get enough food to feed the family why would they be bothered anyway to get clean water? In these countries, more than half of the population lives on less than a dollar per day. In fact, even when exposed to the health and sanitation dangers, people continue to use untreated water.
With the help of the SODIS solar water disinfection, people are able to treat their drinking water in the most cost effective way possible. Surely, such innovations are required in the less developed countries since they reduce the cost of getting clean water, cases of water bone diseases and the household as well as national budget on disease treatments. What is needed is to educate the people on the benefits of using clean and safe water and the dangers of consuming untreated water.
The governments and NGOs must be seen moving hastily to provide clean and safe water to the people in the slum areas as well as offer community education on health and sanitation. The people must realize that a health community is a prosperous nation. People cannot work when they are sick due to using unsafe drinking water. The governments spend a lot of money in treating diseases, which could otherwise be avoided and that money channeled into other national development projects. The community must also understand that the money they use when caring for the sick and buying drugs for the ill people can be used for family development.
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