Collecting water can easily take all day long and the job falls to the girls in the family. This means early mornings, long walks, waits in line, and missing school or work. All for water that isn't always safe enough to drink. Giving water gives their time back.
In India, 128 million people lack safe water. The World Bank estimates that 21 percent of all communicable diseases are related to unsafe drinking water. Water-related diseases affect millions, mostly children, and women spend their days collecting water instead of working, growing food or caring for their children.
Many people who lack clean drinking water live in poverty in remote areas. They travel for hours, walking barefoot across dirt roads to collect water for their families. But the water they bring home is often life destroying. It carries dangerous bacteria that can make everyone sick.
Unsafe water is filled with disease! Families drink water that is often contaminated with:
The water is not safe to drink, but it is often their only option. When children get sick, families must spend what little money they have to take the sick child to a doctor in town and buy medicine. One trip will usually cost several days of wages. Unsafe water creates a vicious cycle, which causes sickness and keeps people entrenched in poverty.
You can give safe and disease-free water that will transform the health of a family—and even a community. You will provide health and wellness for years to come. Additionally, India Partners’ WASH (Water, Access, Sanitation and Hygiene) program teaches people the importance of hygienic practices to help prevent diseases and saves lives.
Safe water changes lives forever. You are giving a family improved health, a better quality of life, and hope for a brighter future. You can transform the health of an entire family or a village with your gift of safe water.
