Clean water is a building block of life. It is a basic requirement of living. Access to a plentiful supply of fresh, clean water is fundamental to health and growth. That’s why ADRA has been actively developing water resources for more than 20 years. Water is life, and we know it. In the communities that we serve around the world, no need is more urgent than the need for good, clean water. I am asking you to help us bring clean water to desperate, thirsty people.
Families must have water to survive. When there is no clean water in the village, it becomes the duty of young girls to spend their day searching for and carrying water to their homes. Many times, they are forced to walk great distances, which puts them at risk of physical danger and usually closes the door to an education.
More than one-third of the young female population in Nigeria drops out of school to spend the day fetching water for their families. According to Mrs. Kagane in the Kano state, “We want to send our children to school, but we can’t because they are out searching for water each day. Not one child in our village is able to write their name. Our children are unschooled.”
While walking great distances puts girls at a continual risk for their physical safety, drinking dirty, unsanitary water also places the health of the entire village at risk. In fact, it places their very lives in danger. Diarrhea, intestinal worms, trachoma, typhoid fever, schistosomiasis, and cholera are all plaguing many of the children, women, and men in these villages.
“Our source of drinking water at the best of times is greenish in color,” says Mrs. Tunji in the Osun state of Nigeria. “I think this explains why there are always people in our village suffering from severe diarrhea. I think those of us who are still alive should thank God for every extra day that we live on this earth!”
ADRA is improving the sustainable access to clean water for these desperate individuals. We believe that access to clean water is a basic and fundamental human right. We know that providing communities with clean water means that more children will be in school, everyone in the village will be healthier, and, in turn, their economic productivity will be improved.
