Sunday, March 25, 2007
World Water Day Walk
After a great night of celebrating a very good friend's birthday, Jessie and I woke-up very early and quite groggy to go to Stanley Park to attend the World Water Day walk organized by Starbucks and Ethos Water.
I haven't actually attended an activist/awareness walk since I was a little kid. It was either because it just felt this way or because it was bordering on reality that as a kid, I felt that I attended some kind of walk or rally every single weekend. On the way to the event, Jess and I were musing whether - or more realistically - up until what age we would drag our kids to the events we were participating in. I remember particularly a Noam Chomsky documentary that my Dad almost quite literally dragged me to. I still can't comprehend most of Noam Chomsky's lectures so my ability to stay engaged at 9 years-old was even more limited. That said, I am now thankful that I was forced to go as opposed to finishing that lego castle.
I must admit feeling rather ironic attending a Water awareness event (in which we walk 4k to acknowledge how far many people have to walk to get clean water) in a rain-forest with not one but two full bottles of water in my coat pocket (I had brought a bottle of water and then had been given another at the event).
There were about 50 or 60 people walking at this event in Vancouver, which for a rainy early Saturday morning, was a pretty good turn-out.
As I write this, we are minutes away from the deployment of the brand new site. We are all so incredibly tired... Check back tomorrow morning and it should (providing nothing happens in the next 20 minutes) be up and running.
I haven't actually attended an activist/awareness walk since I was a little kid. It was either because it just felt this way or because it was bordering on reality that as a kid, I felt that I attended some kind of walk or rally every single weekend. On the way to the event, Jess and I were musing whether - or more realistically - up until what age we would drag our kids to the events we were participating in. I remember particularly a Noam Chomsky documentary that my Dad almost quite literally dragged me to. I still can't comprehend most of Noam Chomsky's lectures so my ability to stay engaged at 9 years-old was even more limited. That said, I am now thankful that I was forced to go as opposed to finishing that lego castle.
I must admit feeling rather ironic attending a Water awareness event (in which we walk 4k to acknowledge how far many people have to walk to get clean water) in a rain-forest with not one but two full bottles of water in my coat pocket (I had brought a bottle of water and then had been given another at the event).
There were about 50 or 60 people walking at this event in Vancouver, which for a rainy early Saturday morning, was a pretty good turn-out.
As I write this, we are minutes away from the deployment of the brand new site. We are all so incredibly tired... Check back tomorrow morning and it should (providing nothing happens in the next 20 minutes) be up and running.
Labels: awareness, water, worldwaterday
Thursday, March 22, 2007
World Water Day - What It Means & How you can help
Today is "World Water Day" an internationally recognized observance of the World's water crisis that grew out of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.
In recognition of the day, I would like to point your attention to two projects at GiveMeaning that are building water-wells in African countries.
The first is an initiative that is very grass-roots started by a guy from Victoria, BC who has been building wells in developing countries for some time now. You can see his project here
The second is an initiative supporting Lifewater Canada, a very small grass-roots charity doing great work in Liberia. You can see their project here
Please consider donating to one or both of these projects and encouraging your friends to do the same.
Also, check out worldwaterday.net and join us in one of the many walks happening this weekend. Me and a few of the other GiveMeaning team members will be walking in Vancouver.
In recognition of the day, I would like to point your attention to two projects at GiveMeaning that are building water-wells in African countries.
The first is an initiative that is very grass-roots started by a guy from Victoria, BC who has been building wells in developing countries for some time now. You can see his project here
The second is an initiative supporting Lifewater Canada, a very small grass-roots charity doing great work in Liberia. You can see their project here
Please consider donating to one or both of these projects and encouraging your friends to do the same.
Also, check out worldwaterday.net and join us in one of the many walks happening this weekend. Me and a few of the other GiveMeaning team members will be walking in Vancouver.
Labels: water, worldwaterday
Monday, November 13, 2006
Water
Just a final thought before leaving Kitgum. Last night I had dinner with a local contracting group that drills water wells for most of the NGO's in Northern Uganda.
Water is clearly a popular priority for donors and so NGO's looking to satisfy their donors drill multiple holes in one community so as to ensure equitable access.
From my discussion, it seems that there may be a bunch of sustainability issues that need to be addressed with the current method of providing water into communities here.
First, these hand-pumps are limited in yield to the manual output of the community members pumping the water;
Second (to the sustainability issue) is that the contractors were telling me that they have significant evidence that the number of wells per village is depleting the water tables and they have quantitative evidence of this that I am hoping they will send to me.
If NGO's were to focus on building one mechanized well with adequate water storage, the yield from a mechanized unit would likely dramatically increase (because it reduces the physical pumping requirement) and would reduce the depletion of the water tables.
I suppose the argument here is that it would create long line-ups at a centralized water distribution and that people would have to walk further. I think these concerns could be mitigated / addressed by good logistical implementation.
Obviously I have no idea what I'm talking about. Just my uninformed, naive opinion but as I've often learned, sometimes the dumbest questions lead to the most innovative answers!
Water is clearly a popular priority for donors and so NGO's looking to satisfy their donors drill multiple holes in one community so as to ensure equitable access.
From my discussion, it seems that there may be a bunch of sustainability issues that need to be addressed with the current method of providing water into communities here.
First, these hand-pumps are limited in yield to the manual output of the community members pumping the water;
Second (to the sustainability issue) is that the contractors were telling me that they have significant evidence that the number of wells per village is depleting the water tables and they have quantitative evidence of this that I am hoping they will send to me.
If NGO's were to focus on building one mechanized well with adequate water storage, the yield from a mechanized unit would likely dramatically increase (because it reduces the physical pumping requirement) and would reduce the depletion of the water tables.
I suppose the argument here is that it would create long line-ups at a centralized water distribution and that people would have to walk further. I think these concerns could be mitigated / addressed by good logistical implementation.
Obviously I have no idea what I'm talking about. Just my uninformed, naive opinion but as I've often learned, sometimes the dumbest questions lead to the most innovative answers!
Labels: africa, aid, development, kitgum, philanthropy, uganda, water
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