Clean Water: Bore Wells and Filters
Clean, safe drinking water, hygiene education and sanitation are essential to life.
- 884 million people worldwide have no access to clean water.*
- Every 20 seconds a child dies from diseases associated with lack of safe drinking water and poor hygiene.†
- Lack of clean water leads to impoverishment and diminished opportunities.‡
- Children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at any time.§
Many villages in Odisha (formerly Orissa) do not have access to clean water.
Women and girls walk long distances to fetch water from rivers, streams or ponds. These are usually polluted and there is great risk of drowning and injury.
Each full water pot weighs 10 kilos, so the long-term consequences of carrying these on their heads and hips are back and neck problems.
Gastroenteritis is one of the biggest killers in remote villages. There is no understanding of the need for clean water or of basic hygienic practices like hand washing to stop gastro.
Irrigation of fields is limited by the amount of water that can be carried or diverted to a field.
Villages are Transformed by Water
Jacob’s Well is taking clean water into the remote villages where there is no water and no hope.
Villages are transformed by clean water provided by either a bore well or a water filtration plant and by the hygiene education given to all villagers by our team.
No longer do women and girls spend hours each day collecting water from the river, freeing them to work in the fields or in the forests gathering products to sell at weekly markets.
No longer do families have to drink muddy, polluted water – there is a reliable supply of clean, fresh drinking water ‘on tap’ just outside the door.
No longer do families have to suffer from gastroenteritis because they’ve learned that by simply washing their hands there is a dramatic reduction in gastro.
There is water for home vegetable gardens, water to bathe children, water for drinking and cooking – clean fresh water that is essential to life.
* United Nations 2006 Human Development Report. † UNICEF/WHO. 2008 ‡ UNICEF/WHO. 2008 § UN Water. 2008. Tackling a Global Crisis: International Year of Sanitation 2008.