As the shopping frenzy of the Christmas season reaches its peak, a Canadian charity is asking consumers to consider giving a different type of gift this year: clean water.
Ottawa-based WaterCan is inviting Canadians to purchase a symbolic “gift of water” on behalf of their loved ones that provides clean drinking water and sanitation supplies to some of Africa’s poorest communities.
Among the suggested gifts, a $20 donation buys soap to combat disease, $40 secures a hand-dug well, and $100 buys a lifetime supply of drinking water for a family of four.
When donors give the “gift of water,” an e-card is sent to the recipient informing them of the donation made in their name and the impact it will have on the community.
CERF Inc., an Alberta company that manages waste from the construction and industrial sectors, has promised to match every dollar raised by Canadians up to $25,000.
“The real, tangible ripple effect that happens when people gain access to life’s most basic needs is actually quite incredible,” says WaterCan’s public engagement coordinator Andrea Helfer.
“Other areas of development just follow suit.”
Lack of drinking water and sanitation facilities is a leading cause of death and disease in the developing world.
Nearly one billion people worldwide currently do not have access to clean drinking water and an estimated 2.6 billion do not have access to basic sanitation facilities such as toilets or latrines.
WaterCan estimates that half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from completely preventable water and sanitation-related diseases such as diarrhoea and typhoid.
Raw sewage is also a major contaminant of drinking water, making basic toilet facilities crucial to a healthy water system.
Helfer says directly employing local Africans to build the projects has been crucial to their sustainability.
“We don’t send flotillas of volunteers and lots of Western experts to ’solve' problems. We work with very capable local people to support them in solving their own water and sanitation challenges,” she explains.
“When people feel a sense of ownership over the infrastructure, it is just much more likely to stand the test of time.”
Fetching Water Fraught With Risks
Lack of water and sanitation can have particularly severe consequences on women and girls, who
spend long hours every day collecting water, preventing many from attending school regularly.
“While all children are affected by the lack of water and sanitation in the community, girls in particular are facing challenges. When a school doesn’t have access to water and sanitation they are the ones who are sent off to fetch water, even during class time,” says Helfer
Girls also often risk physical assault or rape when carrying water over long distances, or when finding private places to relieve themselves in dark, isolated areas to avoid embarrassment.
In 2009 WaterCan raised $15,000, in 2010, $30,000. This year the goal is to raise $75,000 which will be used to help dig 12 wells to provide 4,125 people with clean water in Katooke, a sub-county in Uganda.
Helfer says Margaret Trudeau, the organization’s honourary president and former wife of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, has been able to help draw “great attention” to the cause.
“I do not believe our work is charity. It is justice. The need is so great and the water is the beginning,” says Trudeau in a message on the WaterCan website.
“Dirty water is one of the greatest threats to the well-being of the poorest people living in the developing world.”
A long-time activist regarding clean water issues, Trudeau has been involved with WaterCan since 1996 and has made several trips to Africa to study and promote clean water projects.
In 2000 she travelled to Uganda to visit Michel’s Well, a WaterCan project that was named to honour her late son, Michel Trudeau.
Trudeau is not the only celebrity to get behind WaterCan’s projects. Reporter and eTalk host Ben Mulroney was recently named the organization’s national ambassador, and has pledged to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, in October 2012 to raise funds for WaterCan projects throughout eastern Africa.
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