Pure Water for the World, Inc. is a 501c3 not-for-profit corporation headquartered in Rutland, Vermont. Pure Water is dedicated to implementing sustainable water solutions for children, families, and communities in developing countries.
Its local, indigenous, and highly trained staff is completely focused on delivering water filtration, hygiene education, and sanitation to homes, schools, and health clinics. Pure Water works with local governments and community leaders to determine an appropriate technology and training plan for a given community, and to implement the plan in a cost-effective and sustainable way.
Sustainability is achieved by on-site monitoring of filters and hygiene education by both Pure Water staff and community leaders.
People suffering the consequences of waterborne disease occupy ten percent of hospital beds worldwide. But those in hospitals are the lucky ones: 2 million people die every year from diarrheal disease and waterborne parasites, the majority of them children under age five.
In Central America and the Caribbean, these waterborne diseases are the second leading cause of death in children under the age of five. In Honduras, 20 percent of those living in rural areas of the country do not have clean drinking water. In Haiti, 42 percent of the population lives without clean water.
In developing countries such as Haiti and Honduras, approximately one or two percent of all government spending goes to low cost water and sanitation solutions. More is spent on high cost services for the top few than on low cost services for the many. According to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), “At any one time, more than half the poor of the developing world are ill from causes related to hygiene, sanitation and water supply. Diarrheal disease alone kills six thousand children every day.”
Sources: World Health Organization and Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC)
Drinking water in rural areas is most often contaminated by human and animal fecal waste — the most common source of health problems and widespread disease. These contaminants lead to medical conditions such as diarrhea, dysentery, gastroenteritis, hepatitis, and typhoid fever. Pure Water focuses on removing these biological contaminants from drinking water, as well as preventing disease through community-wide hygiene education.
Pure Water identifies communities, schools, health clinics, or orphanages where there is a high incidence of waterborne disease and where there are no anticipated improvements for water systems.
The organization is currently most active in the El Paraiso district of southern Honduras, and throughout Haiti. Pure Water, with its Haiti offices located in Port-au-Prince, was able to provide substantial relief following the 2010 earthquake. For 14 months following the disaster, Pure Water delivered clean water to as many as 80,000 people every day in the Cité Soleil district of Port-au-Prince. Pure Water efforts continue in Port-au-Prince and nationwide.
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