With Water Life Flows

Video By: Dan Walker. Check out his other work sometime by looking him up on facebook. facebook.com/dan.walker.552

Water: Big Cities Big Problems

What are we doing for cities and towns of 10,000 people. Or 20,000 people? Digging wells to give them water to drink isn’t enough. These are growing cities. If we are to help them grow out of poverty we have to do more.

It is not feasible to dig wells and say it is good enough for these people. A town called Mao, in Chad, has roughly 20,000 people. For clean water they have to still walk to a water tower to collect it. Can you imagine living in a town with 20,000 people and having to walk to a water tower just to get water?There are other options. Better solutions for this problem. While the options will not be easy or cheap solutions they provide the best hope to people all over the world.

Piping water into homes, bringing it closer to where they need it so they can focus on education and being productive citizens. That is what is needed. No more having to walk and fill a jug for clean water. No more wells to walk to in the town center. Just clean drinking water where you want it, when you want it.

We must be mindful of the water crisis that we are under. Clean water is a finite source, one that must be carefully measured and watched. Sometimes an aquifer or water source is not large enough to supply a town with water. There are many places like this all over the world. Dams wont always be the best solution. We must find new ways to do this.

Much like L.A. is not self-sustaining with their water supply, neither are most places in the middle of a desert in Africa. We can find a solution, we must find one, but first thing is first and we must start giving these towns the water they need in a clean, safe, cheap, sustainable way. 

What's Next; Water For All:

I haven't gotten a chance to update the blog in a few weeks. It's not that I have stopped working on the project it's that the project has taken off so much that I haven't had a chance sit down and write. Life sometimes gets in the way of so many things.

Since being back home I have tried to work on the water station as much as possible and update some things on the drawings as well as create a video about my experience. The video seems to be further along then the drawings... and we start filming tomorrow for the video. Since being home I have taken an active role in a group called Enactus IPFW and we are currently gearing up for a competition in Chicago next weekend. We are presenting the water station project in front of a panel of judges. I hope to use this time to raise awareness of the problem as well as see about getting more people on board with helping out.

One of the biggest challenges I have had with this project is finding people who feel called or lead to help. This project is a massive undertaking, one I can not do alone. Yet for some reason I feel like the whole design and implementation part will be on my own. I do hope to find at least one to two more people who feel called to help solve the worlds problems to help with this project.

I promise I will start updating this more and get more information out there on whats going on.