Benefits
of Action

A 300 year timewarp:
Mumbai, 2007 = London, 1707

There is hope! History has shown that when large cities, like London and New York, set up comprehensive sanitation systems, their populations became healthier as water borne diseases, like cholera, disappeared. Unburdened by disease, citizens began to live longer, more productive lives, and over timewere able tomake leaps forward in human development. Our challenge is to replicate those leaps where the provision of water and sanitation is still lacking.

A little bit helps a lot

When one sewer truck started working in Orangi, Pakistan, the infant mortality rate sank from 130 deaths in 1000 births in the early 1980s to fewer than 40 per 1000 births today.

Water Brings
A New Lease on Life

In Moturumesi village and the surrounding areas in Nyamira, Kenya, there had long been a water crisis, but in 2004 the villagers got support from the government and donor agencies. Today water from the new municipal well and pipe system serves more than 15 000 people and 30 000 animals. There are happy faces all around. “Our animals are healthy and I am sure of going to school early,” says Susan Kwamboka, a frequent cholera patient before the water project.

For me, the biggest treat is I can go visit my grandmother, who lives in Moturumesi. The reformations make everything simpler for me when I visit her because I don’t have to fear fetching clean water from long distances, taking animals to far-away rivers. My grandmother no longer has to take her children and grandchildren to the hospital. She also waters her crops regularly, ensuring a bountiful harvest. The sudden availability of water has given her a new face. She enjoys showering everyday ­ something she has not done for years. To her, life has just begun.

JoshuaAwala, Kenya