WASH

The Best Way to Pump It Up – Part 1

HydrateLife WASH, Water Technology 8 Comments

If you’re looking to pump water in a rural setting there are a lot of options that can be used, however, not all pumps are created equal.  Some are more expensive than others and may require outside funding, and others can be built from locally available parts that are fairly inexpensive.  Some have a lot of working parts which make maintaining them a challenge, while others are very simple and easy to maintain.  Further, some are designed to give enoughcontinue reading

A DIFFERENT APPROACH: SCHOOL-LED TOTAL SANITATION – PART 2

HydrateLife Health, Sanitation, WASH 5 Comments

In part 1 I gave a brief introduction into what SLTS is and its objectives as well as talking about the different components of SLTS.  If you missed part 1 you can read it here.  Today I’m going to write about the strategy used for SLTS. One thing that I wanted to say, and that I may have mentioned last time, is that I’m not entirely in agreement about some of the strategy used with SLTS.  Basically, the SLTS strategycontinue reading

A Different Approach: School-Led Total Sanitation – Part 1

HydrateLife Health, Sanitation, WASH 4 Comments

As of 2011, sanitation coverage worldwide was at 64%.  With a worldwide population of just over seven billion this means that two and a half billion people still do not have access to improved sanitation facilities.  Of these people, just over one billion still practice open defecation.  Lack of proper sanitation and hygiene often leads to poor health and polluted water, which in turn leads to less production, less time in school, and many deaths worldwide. One methodology that iscontinue reading

Stealing Water from the Sky: Fog Catching

HydrateLife Health, Sustainable Practices, WASH, Water Technology 12 Comments
Stealing Water from the Sky: Fog Catching

Growing up near San Francisco, California (and now living there) I have always had to deal with the inevitable fog that rolls in from the ocean seemingly every day.  Everyone is always complaining about the fog ruining their day and the depression of weeks on weeks of endless fog.  Needless to say, I have never been very fond of the stuff.   Because the people living in the San Francisco area are very fortunate and don’t have to worry about watercontinue reading

Celebrating World Water Day 2013

HydrateLife Dams, Environment, Facts/Statistics, Health, Sanitation, Studies, Sustainable Practices, WASH 7 Comments

In honor of World Water Day on March 22 I wanted to give you a brief history on World Water Day.  Before I do that let’s look at some facts about water and the worldwide water (and sanitation) crisis: If you look at all the water in the world you’d find that: 97.5% of it is saltwater and therefore cannot be used for drinking water (it could be desalinated, but this is costly and takes a lot of energy, pluscontinue reading

Gaza’s Water Woes

HydrateLife Facts/Statistics, Health, WASH, Water Pollution 1 Comment
Gaza’s Water Woes

Let me start off by saying that I am aware that the situation in Gaza is a very touchy subject to a lot of people and with that in mind I will do my best to keep my personal views out of what I’m about to write.    However, I would ask that whatever your views may be please try to read this with an open mind and think about the innocent people and children that are living in this situation.continue reading

Saving Lives with Community-Led Total Sanitation

HydrateLife Health, Sanitation, WASH, Water Treatment 2 Comments

Without water people cannot survive, but without good sanitation and hygiene practices the water available could become contaminated and lead to disease and death.  Every year 1.5 million people, most of them children, die from complications associated with diarrhea that they picked up from dirty water.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 88% of diarrhea cases worldwide are linked to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene.  Diarrhea is caused by bacteria that get into the water system, andcontinue reading

Polluted Rivers: The Ciliwung

HydrateLife WASH, Water Pollution 5 Comments

Today I wanted to write about one of the most polluted rivers in the world; the Ciliwung River in Indonesia.  The Ciliwung’s pollution comes at it from everywhere; raw sewage, industrial pollution, agricultural pollution, and household trash.  When you see pictures of this river, such as the one above, your heart sinks thinking about all the people that live along the river and what it has become. The Ciliwung is 200 miles long and is the main river that runscontinue reading

Eco-Latrine of the Future: Tiger Toilets

HydrateLife Health, Sanitation, WASH, Water Technology 8 Comments

Sanitation is a huge problem in developing nations.  While the world has made significant progress on providing clean water to those who need it leaders have fallen behind when it comes to sanitation.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation put sanitation as a high priority for their organization, and with that in mind they funded the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Sanitation Ventures project.  Because most people in developing nations don’t have infrastructure to take away the wastecontinue reading

New Tech Helps Improve Sanitation in Jakarta Slums

HydrateLife Sanitation, WASH, Water Technology 5 Comments

Take a look at the picture above of a slum in Jakarta, Indonesia.  Now tell me how you would get a typical large sanitation truck through the slum in order to collect human “sludge”.  That’s a question that Mercy Corps’ Indonesian team asked themselves, and they came up with a great answer. In Indonesia 50,000 people die every year as a result of poor sanitation, most of them being in slums like the one above.  It’s understandable since none ofcontinue reading

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