What does World Water Day mean to me. It means a day of living without bottled water, without tap water, without showers, without indoor plumbing. Living like over 1 billion people live every day. I am blessed by the resources I have been given at my disposal. The Declaration of Independance sums up best what I believe, "all men are created equal." That quote has always stuck with me throughout my life.
This Friday isn't about the statistics. If we listened to statistics then we would believe that over 1 billion people live without access to clean water, this is misleading. The Dominican Republic is a place where 87 percent of the country has access to clean water, yet they can not drink it from their taps. They have to go and buy bottled water from a store and that is considered access. The city supply that is piped into peoples homes is only available 8 hours a day 3 days a week, if they are lucky. The city supply also is full of harmful bacteria and particles that make you second guess even washing your hands with it. There is more work to be done to improve the water in this country before it should be considered clean by human standards.
World Water Day is about remembering the history of the clean water movement and those who have given their lives to this cause. I read a story today about Perveen Rahman today and her work in the poor districts of Pakistan. She went against the flow and helped bring low cost sanitation methods to Karachi, Pakistan and in the process improved the lives of over a million people. A few hours after I first read about her I head that she was shot dead in the same community that she dedicated her life to improve. This World Water Day should be made in her honor for the work she did to improve the lives of so many. I am sure every last one of us in the water business look up to her for the work she was able to do.
So I realize I havent said much about what World Water Day is. It's a simple idea. It is the one day a year we protest the fact that so many people have no access to clean water or have to relay on bottles of water. We protest by getting together and talking about the issues we face and how we can solve them. We also give up drinking bottles of water, some are going so far as to give up water for the entire day. Some are giving up using indoor plumbing for the day to protest unsanitary conditions a lot of the world faces. Quite a few of us are also giving up showering as a way to protest. No matter how you protest it, it's all for the same cause. Raise awareness on this Friday March 22nd and let everyone know why your protesting. Join us and help us remember Perveen Rahman.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Water: When It's More Than Just Water
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Water: World Water Day March 22nd
I went to the store today to buy some basic necessities. I decided to walk down the soda isle to grab something to drink. It happened to be the same isle as the one where they keep bottled water. I was shocked to see that most of the bottled water was sold out. Think about that for a minute. In a country where clean water comes out of every tap it is hard to keep bottled water on the shelf.
As a whole we are a very wasteful country. We go out of our way to create waste. We will drink bottled water instead of grabbing a cup and getting water from the tap. There are places in this world who are begging for having the same luxuries as we do. Having the ability to go to the sink and get some water is a foreign concept for most of the world.
In the Dominican Republic I could buy a Dasani bottle of water, 20oz, for 10 pesos. That works out to about 25 cents per bottle. They keep the price there low because so many people use the bottles and it keeps people like me from coming in and investing in the city water supply. In the US we pay $1.25 per bottle from a vending machine. It is mind boggling why we pay so much more in the US for the same water.
After spending a week in a country with around 8 million people, and none of them are able to drink water from a tap, it strikes me that we have the same habits as them even though we have clean water. We could easily grab a reusable bottle when on the run instead of using bottled water. At the very least we could start to recycle the bottles we use so they wont end up in a land fill. One of the biggest challenges we face in the Dominican Republic is changing the way people classify trash and recyclables. Educating people about what can be recycled and why its bad to just throw it on the side of the road is not as easy as it seems. Two people I met in Santiago are currently working on a project to help educate the people on how to classify recyclables. Time will tell how they do, however, they know how hard it is to changes peoples perspectives.
The task before us is difficult but not impossible. During my time there I noticed that taxi drivers help keep the cities moving. Why can't we use that to our advantage and have advertisements about recycling and basic sanitation in every taxi. This seems like its too easy of a solution, it is because the taxi's are all government owned. Getting them to agree to anything like that means they have to see a benefit to them. In a country with little regulation that all goes unenforced getting them to see how it can benefit them personally is a tall order. This idea to give the island clean water to every house is not just about that. It is about improving and changing the education of an entire culture.
For World Water Day this Friday I am asking that no one uses bottled water for a day, and recycle every bottle you see. If we could do that for one day it would make a huge difference. Simple changes can add up over time.
As a whole we are a very wasteful country. We go out of our way to create waste. We will drink bottled water instead of grabbing a cup and getting water from the tap. There are places in this world who are begging for having the same luxuries as we do. Having the ability to go to the sink and get some water is a foreign concept for most of the world.
In the Dominican Republic I could buy a Dasani bottle of water, 20oz, for 10 pesos. That works out to about 25 cents per bottle. They keep the price there low because so many people use the bottles and it keeps people like me from coming in and investing in the city water supply. In the US we pay $1.25 per bottle from a vending machine. It is mind boggling why we pay so much more in the US for the same water.
After spending a week in a country with around 8 million people, and none of them are able to drink water from a tap, it strikes me that we have the same habits as them even though we have clean water. We could easily grab a reusable bottle when on the run instead of using bottled water. At the very least we could start to recycle the bottles we use so they wont end up in a land fill. One of the biggest challenges we face in the Dominican Republic is changing the way people classify trash and recyclables. Educating people about what can be recycled and why its bad to just throw it on the side of the road is not as easy as it seems. Two people I met in Santiago are currently working on a project to help educate the people on how to classify recyclables. Time will tell how they do, however, they know how hard it is to changes peoples perspectives.
The task before us is difficult but not impossible. During my time there I noticed that taxi drivers help keep the cities moving. Why can't we use that to our advantage and have advertisements about recycling and basic sanitation in every taxi. This seems like its too easy of a solution, it is because the taxi's are all government owned. Getting them to agree to anything like that means they have to see a benefit to them. In a country with little regulation that all goes unenforced getting them to see how it can benefit them personally is a tall order. This idea to give the island clean water to every house is not just about that. It is about improving and changing the education of an entire culture.
For World Water Day this Friday I am asking that no one uses bottled water for a day, and recycle every bottle you see. If we could do that for one day it would make a huge difference. Simple changes can add up over time.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Water: a classless mission
The world is a strange place. Too much of one thing can be bad. No matter how good it is.
Growing up in America and only visiting Western Europe I have never been judged off my skin color. Being white has been the norm. Here the beggars single out the white people and instead of asking for money they try to demand it. Like it's our job to just give them everything they need.
This is the exception more then the norm but twice today I saw how we were singled out and people were trying to demand that we solve all their problems with money. That is very easy to do but it won't do us any good.
This morning we went to cien fuegos and went on a field trip with some of the school children. We got to see the fire station and the water station again. Afterwards instead of taking a bus back to the school the kids walked. It wasn't far but it wouldn't happen in the states. The school was very nice but stood out from the surrounding neighborhood. The village around it kept getting poorer and poorer.
It made me realize just how much they need clean water. We went down to the canal and saw people getting water from it to clean and do laundry with it, or so they said. There is no running water through this part of cien fuegos. Absolutely none. It was touching to see how they live and walk around the town.
After our visit there we went out to dinner with some new friends of ours here. They took us to see how the richest people live. Not to show off but to show us that there is a class system here and there is lots of money. It was a very nice country club, like one you would find in the states.
It was interesting to see how the top 1% hide away from the problems here like they don't exist. At dinner we talked about what the country needs to succeed ad how to get there.
Regulation is the key here. There is none right now. It's an anything goes type society. With regulation that is enforced it would improve living conditions of all. To set the regulations they need a base point to go off of. An example to lead the way. That's where I feel I can be of use and help shape the regulator commission and create the laws needed to maintain a good system for power, water, roads, and government as a whole.
I will be back to clean the water but I will also be setting an example of how things can work correctly and will benefit everyone. In a country where people always feel like your out to get them and that there is a catch its hard to change minds. I believe we can do it though. First we clean the water.
Growing up in America and only visiting Western Europe I have never been judged off my skin color. Being white has been the norm. Here the beggars single out the white people and instead of asking for money they try to demand it. Like it's our job to just give them everything they need.
This is the exception more then the norm but twice today I saw how we were singled out and people were trying to demand that we solve all their problems with money. That is very easy to do but it won't do us any good.
This morning we went to cien fuegos and went on a field trip with some of the school children. We got to see the fire station and the water station again. Afterwards instead of taking a bus back to the school the kids walked. It wasn't far but it wouldn't happen in the states. The school was very nice but stood out from the surrounding neighborhood. The village around it kept getting poorer and poorer.
It made me realize just how much they need clean water. We went down to the canal and saw people getting water from it to clean and do laundry with it, or so they said. There is no running water through this part of cien fuegos. Absolutely none. It was touching to see how they live and walk around the town.
After our visit there we went out to dinner with some new friends of ours here. They took us to see how the richest people live. Not to show off but to show us that there is a class system here and there is lots of money. It was a very nice country club, like one you would find in the states.
It was interesting to see how the top 1% hide away from the problems here like they don't exist. At dinner we talked about what the country needs to succeed ad how to get there.
Regulation is the key here. There is none right now. It's an anything goes type society. With regulation that is enforced it would improve living conditions of all. To set the regulations they need a base point to go off of. An example to lead the way. That's where I feel I can be of use and help shape the regulator commission and create the laws needed to maintain a good system for power, water, roads, and government as a whole.
I will be back to clean the water but I will also be setting an example of how things can work correctly and will benefit everyone. In a country where people always feel like your out to get them and that there is a catch its hard to change minds. I believe we can do it though. First we clean the water.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Water: Santiago one plastic bottle at a time
Humans are comprised of about 70 percent water. We need it to survive. So why is the only water I can drink, in this luxury hotel in a town of 3 million people, bottled water? It shouldn't be this way. No one should have to live like this anywhere yet it's the norm more than the exception.
In my hotel room there is a sign that warns against drinking the tap water. So what are we supposed to do? Travis and I bought a case of water and a two gallon jug to last the week. You have to buy these in markets, I have yet to find one in Santiago but I know they are here.
In Friusa before we left I was asked if to could take a sample of their water and look into giving them clean water. This got me thinking. Why stop there? Why only the church. In a resort town everyone has to drink bottled water. I am going to try to meet with some resorts here this summer to help cover the costs of building a city wide water treatment plant. This will require lots of time and money but it's the right thing to do. As soon as I land in the states I am sending the water samples into a lab to be checked out.
Once I have all the info I need ill see what I can do. I know this project won't be easy but I have two great cities here to try this on an a great supporting cast here to help. I hope to be back this summer to get started on this work. I won't be able to do this without the support of my friends back in the states.
I am thinking of having a series of dinner parties, with traditional Dominican food, for those who are interested in helping solve this problem one plastic bottle at a time. Let me know if your interested.
In my hotel room there is a sign that warns against drinking the tap water. So what are we supposed to do? Travis and I bought a case of water and a two gallon jug to last the week. You have to buy these in markets, I have yet to find one in Santiago but I know they are here.
In Friusa before we left I was asked if to could take a sample of their water and look into giving them clean water. This got me thinking. Why stop there? Why only the church. In a resort town everyone has to drink bottled water. I am going to try to meet with some resorts here this summer to help cover the costs of building a city wide water treatment plant. This will require lots of time and money but it's the right thing to do. As soon as I land in the states I am sending the water samples into a lab to be checked out.
Once I have all the info I need ill see what I can do. I know this project won't be easy but I have two great cities here to try this on an a great supporting cast here to help. I hope to be back this summer to get started on this work. I won't be able to do this without the support of my friends back in the states.
I am thinking of having a series of dinner parties, with traditional Dominican food, for those who are interested in helping solve this problem one plastic bottle at a time. Let me know if your interested.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Macao and beyond
Today we got a tour of Friusa and two other small villages near by. Each even more poor then the last.
The last one we visited, I don't remember the name currently, was about 15 min off any type of paved surface. The village itself had no roads. The people there, mostly Haitians, lived in places worse than shacks. It was tough to even see how they live.
We met one little boy in one of the villages who rod knew from the school. The boy asked us where we were going after seeing his village and we told him we were going to Macao beach. He said that he had only been to the beach 3 times in his whole life. Mind you we are less then 3 miles from the water.
The people here have no way to get there and the resorts try to keep the Dominicans out as much as possible.
Rod told the boy that he would take the boy to see a man named Roberto when it warmed up and he could learn to surf.
A little about Roberto is that he is a Christian man who owns the surf shop at Macao beach. A nice silver haired man who is as nice as possible. If your ever I. The area stop by and say hi to him.
I know I haven't talked much about water in this post but I wanted to save it for last. Outside of the villages people throw their trash along side of the road and then they burn it. Plastic bottles and all. It's toxic stuff but they don't know any better. Even way off the beaten path the villages still use 5 gallon jugs for water.
I was blow. Away by the fact that everywhere we went had water running to the homes but everyone said this water was only good to wash with and water the plants. Somehow this is considered an improved water source and it just baffles me.
We need to reduce the amount of plastic bottles that just get discarded here. We can do that by giving them clean water. We must raise awareness about this problem.
I am sorry for not having pictures of all that I'm talking about. They are on my camera and I can't connect it to my iPhone here. There are pictures though I promise
The last one we visited, I don't remember the name currently, was about 15 min off any type of paved surface. The village itself had no roads. The people there, mostly Haitians, lived in places worse than shacks. It was tough to even see how they live.
We met one little boy in one of the villages who rod knew from the school. The boy asked us where we were going after seeing his village and we told him we were going to Macao beach. He said that he had only been to the beach 3 times in his whole life. Mind you we are less then 3 miles from the water.
The people here have no way to get there and the resorts try to keep the Dominicans out as much as possible.
Rod told the boy that he would take the boy to see a man named Roberto when it warmed up and he could learn to surf.
A little about Roberto is that he is a Christian man who owns the surf shop at Macao beach. A nice silver haired man who is as nice as possible. If your ever I. The area stop by and say hi to him.
I know I haven't talked much about water in this post but I wanted to save it for last. Outside of the villages people throw their trash along side of the road and then they burn it. Plastic bottles and all. It's toxic stuff but they don't know any better. Even way off the beaten path the villages still use 5 gallon jugs for water.
I was blow. Away by the fact that everywhere we went had water running to the homes but everyone said this water was only good to wash with and water the plants. Somehow this is considered an improved water source and it just baffles me.
We need to reduce the amount of plastic bottles that just get discarded here. We can do that by giving them clean water. We must raise awareness about this problem.
I am sorry for not having pictures of all that I'm talking about. They are on my camera and I can't connect it to my iPhone here. There are pictures though I promise
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Water 101 Friusa and Cien Fuegos
Water 101
We all need water to survive. If we don't have it we won't live very long. We require our water to be free of parasites and most minerals.
That's a pretty tough order for us to survive. If our water gets polluted we have three options. Option one: stop drinking it. Option two: drink it anyways. Option three: ship it in from somewhere else.
Option three is the best option of those options but still not ideal. You can buy water at every supermarket here. A normal bottle cost just 10 pesos. For a gallon it's 85 pesos. Each bottle pollutes the earth and if we have to drink 3 or 4 a day at a minimum then that is a lot of waste if multiplied out.
So how can we solve this problem? What is option 4? Well option 4 is not the easiest option and it costs money upfront. That option is to clean the water and deliver it back to people. We can do this with chlorine filters and reverse osmosis.
The concept is not new. It is what every major American city does. So why is this not done all throughout the world? In some areas there is just not enough Capitol to do a project of this size. When the average person makes only 6,000 a year it is hard to save up enough money, even as a group, to pay for such an investment.
To build just one filtration plant for roughly 2000 people it's about $15,000 US dollars as an investment. Not including the land or a way to pipe water to them, they have to come to us.
Option 4 offers the most Eco friendly and long lasting of the goals. For just $7.5 a person this goal can become a reality. It's not that the people in these areas don't have the money it's finding 2000 people to just give up that money and ten wait for us to build the plant and then they still have to maintain it. Plus the $15,000 is probably a very low number. And being able to bring in that volume of water each day can be a big challenge.
What we want to do is start giving people the option to have clean water. One world one goal: clean water. Help us reach this goal, we cannot do this alone.
We all need water to survive. If we don't have it we won't live very long. We require our water to be free of parasites and most minerals.
That's a pretty tough order for us to survive. If our water gets polluted we have three options. Option one: stop drinking it. Option two: drink it anyways. Option three: ship it in from somewhere else.
Option three is the best option of those options but still not ideal. You can buy water at every supermarket here. A normal bottle cost just 10 pesos. For a gallon it's 85 pesos. Each bottle pollutes the earth and if we have to drink 3 or 4 a day at a minimum then that is a lot of waste if multiplied out.
So how can we solve this problem? What is option 4? Well option 4 is not the easiest option and it costs money upfront. That option is to clean the water and deliver it back to people. We can do this with chlorine filters and reverse osmosis.
The concept is not new. It is what every major American city does. So why is this not done all throughout the world? In some areas there is just not enough Capitol to do a project of this size. When the average person makes only 6,000 a year it is hard to save up enough money, even as a group, to pay for such an investment.
To build just one filtration plant for roughly 2000 people it's about $15,000 US dollars as an investment. Not including the land or a way to pipe water to them, they have to come to us.
Option 4 offers the most Eco friendly and long lasting of the goals. For just $7.5 a person this goal can become a reality. It's not that the people in these areas don't have the money it's finding 2000 people to just give up that money and ten wait for us to build the plant and then they still have to maintain it. Plus the $15,000 is probably a very low number. And being able to bring in that volume of water each day can be a big challenge.
What we want to do is start giving people the option to have clean water. One world one goal: clean water. Help us reach this goal, we cannot do this alone.
Friusa Dominican
We arrived safely in the Dominican Republic! We only got lost once trying to find our first hotel.
When we first arrived nothing really shocked us. This is our first time In a country like this. The airport was very nice and the people where friendly. What did shock us was the fact that most of the people here speak 3 or 4 languages. English not always being one of them.
One regret I do have is not learning more Spanish before we left. The people ere are so friendly and patient with us while we struggle to find the words to say.
We decided to walk to the first site in Friusa today. It was only about a 10 min walk. We didn't have a clue where we were going at first but we gave it a go. We found the back entrance and found someone who spoke French and I was able to ask if we were at the school.
We have been blown away by the great food and the wonderful hospitality of the people here.
One guy we came across today at the market went out of his way to help us find our hotel. He didn't want any money for helping us, a rare occurrence. Him and his wife said that they knew we must be with pastor pasquel, probably spelling his name wrong, and said he is a friend.
Tonight we are going to a young adults group at the church in Friusa and tomorrow starts the work we came here to do
When we first arrived nothing really shocked us. This is our first time In a country like this. The airport was very nice and the people where friendly. What did shock us was the fact that most of the people here speak 3 or 4 languages. English not always being one of them.
One regret I do have is not learning more Spanish before we left. The people ere are so friendly and patient with us while we struggle to find the words to say.
We decided to walk to the first site in Friusa today. It was only about a 10 min walk. We didn't have a clue where we were going at first but we gave it a go. We found the back entrance and found someone who spoke French and I was able to ask if we were at the school.
We have been blown away by the great food and the wonderful hospitality of the people here.
One guy we came across today at the market went out of his way to help us find our hotel. He didn't want any money for helping us, a rare occurrence. Him and his wife said that they knew we must be with pastor pasquel, probably spelling his name wrong, and said he is a friend.
Tonight we are going to a young adults group at the church in Friusa and tomorrow starts the work we came here to do
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Leaving on a jet plane
Travis and I are at the airport about to start the first leg of our journey to the Dominican Republic. This time tomorrow we will be in bavaro. It's still hard to believe that we are going already. It seems like just yesterday we got funding for this trip.
I would like to thank IPFW for making this trip possible
I would like to thank IPFW for making this trip possible
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Cien Fuegos: Background
Above: A picture of the current water station in Cien Fuegos.
Cien Fuegos:
When I first decided to take on this project one of the first things I did was try to google Cien Fuegos Dominican Republic, very little came up about it. I tried to find it on a map, no dice. It seemed like this place didn't even exist when I first started. I wondered what the town was like and how many people live there and how they lived. Over the course of this project I have found out all of that.
Cien Fuegos is a town on the far west side of Santiago. The town itself means 100 fires and is home to about 300,000 people. The people have access to sewers, which back up all the time, city water, which is not safe to drink, and "paved" roads. The politicians seem to ignore this town and do everything they can to keep these people hidden from sight while giving them just a glimmer of hope of a better future.
The town got its name from the many fires that happen at the landfill. They said that at night it looked like a place with 100 fires all burning at once. Most of the town relays on the landfill for jobs of some sort.
A team of nurses and dental hygiene students and facility from IPFW recently went down to Cien Fuegos to give check ups and preform basic medical needs to the people there. The stories they came back with were surprisingly shocking. They were blown away by the fact that everyone they met had very clean clothes, in fact they kept about 3 outfits very very clean. They keep the things they have looking very nice. While their homes may not look like much the IPFW team was amazed at their hospitality.
I get to find out in a few days what I can expect for myself. I leave tomorrow for Bavaro Dominican Republic where we start work on a place for youth with no home to stay. It's not a youth home since the kids can come and go as they please but it's as close as I can describe it. Bavaro itself is a tourist town surrounded by some of the most pristine beaches in the world. We will be working with a local school in Friusa. What we will be doing exactly is unknown to me.
Our trip there is mostly to see first hand what the Dominican is like and help us to better understand the way they construct buildings and also see how they use different equipment. We plan to update this blog and take lots of pictures while we are there. Seeing first hand how the people in Bavaro and Cien Fuegos live should be an eye opening experience.
isaac
Monday, March 4, 2013
Improved Drinking Water
86% of Dominican's have accesses to improved drinking water sources according to UNICEF. I am designing a water treatment station for a town called Cien Fuegos in the Dominican Republic and the statistic of 86% of Dominican's already having access to clean drinking water took me by surprise. I wasn't sure what to think of it until I realized that instead of calling it clean drinking water, they called it "improved" drinking water. It got me thinking just what is "improved" drinking water? And exactly what does that statistic really mean in terms of having safe drinking water.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) defines "improved" drinking water sources as follows:
- Piped water into dwelling
- Piped water into yard/plot
- Public tap /standpipes
- Tubewell /boreholes
- Protected dug wells
- Protected springs
- rainwater collection
- Bottled water, if the secondary source used by the household for cooking and personal hygiene is improved
What I am doing in the Dominican Republic is simple, I am designing a building and system that can be used to clean the local water supply and make it safe and drinkable to all the residents of the area. It will not be piped into dwellings or anything like that. So according to the definition above I am not improving the drinking water at all. Instead of defining the problem as improved drinking water it should be redefined as safe drinking water. That is my goal, to supply safe drinking water to the people of Cien Fuegos.
I will be blogging throughout my journey and will keep updating this with where I am with the project and other random fun facts about where we are going.
Enjoy
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