Each year, UN-Water sets a theme for World Water Day corresponding to a current or future challenge. This year’s theme is ‘Water and Jobs’ and highlights the positive effects of having enough quality water to change workers’ lives and livelihoods and even transform societies and economies. UN Water notes that almost half of the world’s workers, 1.5 billion people, work in water-related sectors and nearly all jobs either depend on water or ensure its safe delivery. Yet, the millions of people who work in water are often not recognized or protected by basic labor rights.

UN-Water estimates that worldwide 768 million people lack access to improved water sources and 2.5 billion people have no improved sanitation. For those who have no access to clean water, water-related disease is common with more than 840,000 people dying each year from water-related diseases. Women and children often bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households and globally, spend 140 million hours a day collecting water. Children in these communities are forced to walk for hours to collect drinking water—water that often proves contaminated and seriously sickens those who consume it. Many others are unable to attend school regularly because they must spend time searching for distant wells.

In response to this crisis, Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has made building wells and supplying fresh, clean water, a top priority for every community in every country in which Salesian missionaries work.

“Having access to clean water is essential for life and brings a sense of dignity to the children and families we serve in our programs,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Improving water and sanitation facilities also ensures that teachers and students are working and learning in an environment that promotes proper hygiene and has safe drinking water, reducing the number of waterborne illnesses that can affect those in our schools keeping them away from important study time.”

In honor and celebration of World Water Day 2016, Salesian Missions is proud to highlight Salesian programs around the globe that provide clean, safe water to those most in need.

DR CONGO

Close to 4,000 youth, parents, Salesian staff and community members are benefiting from two water projects at Salesian training and vocational centers in the city of Lubumbashi in the southeastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo*. The Salesian-run Kansebula St Jean Bosco Institute and Chem Chem Center have nearly completed the renovation of existing water systems which were outdated, wasting energy and had insufficient quantities of water.

Salesian missionaries began the two water projects to ensure clean fresh water for the students and the sustainability of the water sources for their facilities. At Kansebula, the project consists of erecting a high water tower and two 2,500 liter water tanks in connection to the existing water system. Once completed, this project will improve water management and protect the water pump in use. At Chem Chem the project entails upgrading the existing water system to allow proper quantities of clean water for students. This is being accomplished by deepening the existing well, erecting a high water tower and installing two 2,500 liter water tanks.

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia is experiencing the worst drought the country has seen in more than 50 years. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently announced that agricultural assistance for the upcoming rainy season in Ethiopia is essential to help the drought-affected people as one of the strongest El Niño events on record continues to have devastating effects on the lives and livelihoods of farmers and herders.

Salesian missionaries and volunteers with the International Volunteers for Development (VIS) are concerned that the devastating drought is forcing residents to flee the country making them vulnerable to illegal migration (particularly to Europe and the Middle East), exploitation and human traffickers who are already taking advantage of the crisis. Using deep wells built by VIS volunteers in recent years, Salesian missionaries and volunteers are currently distributing water to schools, hospitals and first aid clinics, centers for street children, women’s refuges and diocesan centers. The goal during this emergency phase is to support the 12,000 residents of the Somali, Tigray and Oromia regions and those living in the South.

INDIA

Salesian missionaries working at the Don Bosco St. Joseph School for Children in Ghanaur, a town in the Patiala district in the state of Punjab, India, have begun a construction project to update and improve facilities at the school making it more accessible to its more than 540 students. Currently, the school’s bathroom facilities are dilapidated, out-of-date and insufficient to accommodate the students and faculty.

Situated on the periphery of a large village, the school was created to serve poor students whose parents could not afford traditional school fees. It offers a full range of academic classes as well as recreational programs. Each year, the student population grows as more and more area families require access to affordable education. Due to its growing population, sanitation has been a major concern at the school and will be addressed by the recent construction project which will provide separate bathroom facilities for male and female students. To date, a well has been dug and the purchasing of materials and digging of pits are underway. Once enough funds are raised to complete the project, construction of the bathroom buildings will begin.

RWANDA

Salesian missionaries in the community of Rukago in the city of Kigali, the capital and largest city of Rwanda, just completed a water and sanitation project for the local Salesian school which had been in desperate need of new sanitation and safe drinking water. The project, funded by Salesian Missions, provided eight new toilets and repaired a water tank that provides clean drinking water for the students. Prior to the repair of the water tank, students had to walk more than a mile to collect water from a hill in a swampy area.

The construction project for the new toilets consisted of digging a pit, purchasing materials and constructing a beam, walls and roof. After that, doors were added and the new building was painted. Salesian missionaries expect that this new project will help local families save on medical expenses for treating children who develop water-related diseases and illnesses due to contaminated water. The new improvements will also give the school children better access to safe water so they can turn their attention and focus to their studies.

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Sources:

UN Water – World Water Day 2016

*Any goods, services, or funds provided by Salesian Missions to programs located in this country were administered in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control.

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Each World Water Day focuses on a particular theme. This year’s theme is ‘Water and Sustainable Development’ and focuses on the connection between water resources and sustainable development for the future. Water is at the core of sustainable development and relates directly to the viability of poverty reduction, economic growth and environmental sustainability.

According to UN-Water, the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism on all freshwater related issues, 1.3 billion people cannot access electricity, 768 million people lack access to improved water sources and 2.5 billion people have no improved sanitation, worldwide. For those who have no access to clean water, water related disease is common with more than 840,000 people dying each year from water related diseases.

In addition, women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households, and globally, spend 140 million hours a day collecting water. Children in these communities are forced to walk for hours to collect drinking water—water that often proves contaminated, and seriously sickens those who consume it. Many others are unable to attend school regularly because they must spend time searching for distant wells.

In response to this crisis, Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has made building wells and supplying fresh, clean water, a top priority for every community in every country in which Salesian missionaries work.

“Water is essential for life,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions. “From helping to ensure our communities have access to clean water for drinking and agriculture to helping build a hydro-electric power station, Salesian missionaries working in 132 countries around the globe are always looking to expand their services to meet the needs of the poor youth and families they serve.”

In honor and celebration of World Water Day 2015, Salesian Missions is proud to highlight Salesian programs around the globe that provide clean, safe water to those most in need.

CAMBODIA

Salesian missionaries have a long history of working with poor youth in Cambodia. Continuing this work, the Don Bosco Technical School in Kep Province built a new water tower as part of a Water System Project at the school that was made possible by donors from Don Bosco Mondo in Bonn, Germany. Christened the Mary Help of Youth Water Tower and constructed by a group of volunteers, the tower provides more water than traditional wells, which are relied upon by most people in the region, as it goes deeper into the ground and has two reserve tanks to hold additional water. It also utilizes green technologies by featuring a water pump that is generated by installed solar panels. The Mary Help of Youth Water Tower will guarantee water for this large educational community for years to come.

INDIA

With more than 1.2 billion people, India’s growing population is putting a severe strain on the country’s natural resources. Salesian missionaries across India are dedicated to ensuring that access to safe water is a priority in Salesian-run programs and schools and in the communities in which they operate. In Mumbai, alumni from the class of 1969 at Don Bosco High School in Matuga recently enacted the Aqua Pure Water Project. This alumni-led volunteer project is ensuring clean water access at the school for nearly 3,500 children. A.V. Suresh, alumnus of Don Bosco High School, Matuga and CEO of Eureka Forbes, a water purification company, installed the water purification system at the school. As part of the project, he promised that the Eureka Forbes company would commit itself to providing clean drinking water to the school for the next 10 years. In addition, the company is initiating a collaborative project with Don Bosco High School for water harvesting and water recycling at the school which, when it is completed, will be the first of its kind in the country.

KENYA

Residents in Kenya face regular water and sanitation shortages. To address the need for clean, safe water, a water borehole restoration project is underway at the Salesian-run Bosco Boys community in Nairobi, Kenya. Made possible thanks to the generosity of donors, the project entails removing all the pipes and the electric pump in an existing 250 meter borehole, cleaning the pipes, replacing rotten ones and removing a massive amount of mud. The restoration of the borehole will ensure proper function of a well on the property while providing clean, safe water for students and faculty at the Bosco Boys community.

SIERRA LEONE

Don Bosco Fambul, a leading Salesian educational organization serving disadvantaged youth in Sierra Leone, in collaboration with Brunnenbau Conrad Ltd, a German drilling company, has installed a new water well at Pademba Road Prison in Freetown. The prison faces overcrowding and inadequate food and due to compromised infrastructure, has experienced a serious water crisis with a lack of clean drinking water and water for healthy sanitation and hygiene. The new well will provide 60,000 liters of water each day and new storage facilities to house the water supply will allow for 40 liters of water per prisoner each day.

TANZANIA

Like many poor nations around the world, Tanzania struggles to provide clean, safe water to its citizens. Salesian missionaries living and working in Tanzania focus their programs on the educational and social development needs of youth and their families while working to provide safe, clean water for their students. Well digging and restoration projects are underway at Salesian Missions facilities in Tanzania with new wells being created and older wells that have rotten pipes, often filled with mud, being cleaned and replaced in order to bring water to students and faculty involved in Salesian programs.

Sources

UN World Water Day 2015

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Every year since 1993, the international community celebrates World Water Day on March 22, which focuses attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

The Theme for World Water Day 2013 (coordinated by UNESCO in collaboration with UNECE and UNDESA on behalf of UN-Water) is ‘Water, water everywhere, only if we share.’

“Water holds the key to sustainable development,” says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in an address highlighting World Water Day 2013. “We must work together to protect and carefully manage this fragile, finite resource.”

In honor and celebration of World Water Day 2013, Salesian Missions is proud to highlight Salesian programs around the globe that provide safe water and much-needed agricultural training to those most in need.

BOLIVIA

In Bolivia, families now have access to safe drinking water in their homes through community water distribution projects. In the town of “19 de Agosto” in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the new distribution brings water directly to 106 families who previously had to carry potable water from the town well to their own homes. In addition, the distribution system greatly improves the sanitary conditions of the drinking water. In the town of “Las Parabas,” 50 families now have water distribution directly into their homes.

In another project, water helps power electricity that brings hope to the people of Kami, a village high in the Bolivian Andes. Through Salesian Missions, an abandoned hydro-electrical power station has been restarted to provide the only source of electricity to the local school, hospital, sawmill and new businesses. Refurbished turbines can be fully used even with a small supply of water in the dry season. Excess power can be sold to the Bolivian Electricity Board to defray costs. Now the community has access to technology in its school, better basic medical care, job opportunities and a brighter future for all.

EAST TIMOR

The Salesians are helping East Timor recover and rebuild in the wake of a devastating civil war that claimed countless lives, decimated entire communities and resulted in living conditions that are among the worst in the world. One-third of the population faces food shortages and many of the schools have been destroyed.

At the Salesian agricultural school there, students learn theoretical agricultural methods and work on the college farm. Agricultural skills are also being taught in parish centers and schools. In Baucau, young people have set up a cooperative to plant rice on land owned by parishioners. When they started, they had no tools or machinery, just their bare hands. With assistance from Salesian Missions and AusAid, they were able to purchase hand plows, threshing and milling machines. A portion of the crop belongs to the workers, a portion goes to the landowners as rent and the rest is sold for profit.

INDIA

Child survival depends on safe drinking water. In India, progress has been made toward making access to safe drinking water more readily available with 84.5 percent of rural and 95 percent of urban populations having sustainable access to safe drinking water, according to the World Bank.

At the Don Bosco Center for Learning in Kurla, course work focuses on job training in developing technologies concerning water – ranging from plumbing and sanitation to developing efficient methods for utilization and analyzing existing systems for efficient transportation of water. The courses are designed for youth who have previously left school in order to help them enter the job market.

KENYA

In Kenya, agricultural training has made a significant difference at the Kakuma Refugee Camp. There, food security is enhanced by the demonstration farm which offers training in agriculture skills. It also produces fresh fruit and vegetables adding to the amount of food available to the refugees and inhabitants of the camp.

Agricultural skills are also an important component at the Bosco Boys Kuwinda facility. There, students receive training in the care of livestock including poultry, cows and pigs, as well as training in the vegetable gardens. Eggs and meat are sold from the farm to help support the project.

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Sources:

UN Water – World Water Day 2013

Salesian Missions

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(MissionNewswire) The international community celebrated World Water Day on March 22, which is recognized annually as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. World Water Day 2012 was coordinated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. The theme of this year’s World Water Day was water and food security.

“Agriculture is by far the main user of freshwater,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in an address highlighting World Water Day on March 22, 2012. “Unless we increase our capacity to use water wisely in agriculture, we will fail to end hunger and we will open the door to a range of other ills, including drought, famine and political instability.”

World Water Day is also a day for celebrating organizations and people who work year round to empower women and girls in an effort to make the world a better place. It is work that too often goes uncelebrated.

Salesian Missions has programs helping the poor in more than 130 countries around the globe, including programs that provide safe water and much-needed agricultural training in some of the poorest places on the planet. Here are some examples of that work:

BRAZIL

To address serious water issues resulting from pesticide pollution in a remote area of western Brazil, Salesian Missions worked with members of the Xavante and Bororo Indian communities to obtain clean water from previously inaccessible areas. To do so, they first created wells and designed a mobile drilling truck. To create power, they invented and patented a seesaw pump that would draw water from the depths of the well. Now, solar panels are used. The result is reduced risk of disease, access to potable water, improved infrastructure and expanded farming. The immediate response to a crisis in a community has become a well organized project to ensure the growth of the indigenous groups.

INDIA

Safe drinking water is essential for child survival. In India, progress has been made toward access to safe drinking water with 84.5 percent of rural and 95 percent of urban populations having sustainable access to safe drinking water, according to the World Bank.

At the Don Bosco Centre for Learning in Kura, a new training facility focuses on job training in developing technologies concerning water – ranging from plumbing and sanitation to developing efficient methods for utilization and analyzing existing systems for efficient transportation of water. The courses are designed for youth who have previously left school in order to help them enter the job market.

RWANDA

In Rwanda, food insecurity is a major issue, according to the World Food Program. At least 22 percent of households (2.2 million people) are food-insecure, and another 24 percent are highly vulnerable to food insecurity.

Today, Salesian Missions includes agriculture in its vocational training programs – to ensure that youth of Rwanda learn better agricultural practices as well as keep the school self-sustaining in the face of the country’s food shortages.

PERU

Rebuilding efforts continue after an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in August 2007, which killed more than 500 people in the central coastal cities of Chincha, Pisco and Ica, and injured hundreds more. Years after the quake, Salesians are still helping with ongoing reconstruction efforts in Peru, such as the development of “Mary Help of Christians Village” in Chinca – comprised of 22 small homes with running potable water.

BOLIVIA

In Bolivia, families now have access to safe drinking water in their homes through community water distribution projects. For example, in the town of “19 de Agosto” in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the new distribution brings water directly to 106 families who previously had to carry potable water from the town well to their own homes. In addition, the distribution system greatly improves the sanitary conditions of the drinking water. And, in the town of “Las Parabas,” 50 families now have water distribution directly into their homes.

In Bolivia, training in agriculture practices inspires transformation of communities. At the Muriyana Agricultural School, more than 600 high school students and 100 advanced students are receiving training while learning to integrate their work into the local community. An estimated 20,000 people in the communities benefit directly from this program as a result of the school’s extension and community outreach programs.

LIBERIA

Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world, according to the World Bank.  After a devastating civil war, orphans, street children and adolescent ex-combatants are facing – with little education or skills – adult responsibilities.

The goal of the Don Bosco Rehabilitation and Skills Training Program in Liberia is to reach youth through rehabilitative skills training and counseling. By attending classes, youth can make up for the years lost as a result of the war by gaining marketable skills that they can then contribute to the rebuilding of the country. Teenagers to young adults in their mid-twenties are able to receive agricultural training in addition to carpentry, masonry, plumbing, auto mechanics, metal works, and electricity. The program was founded in 1991 through a joint initiative with UNICEF.

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An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating March 22, 1993, as the first “World Water Day.”

Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater – this year’s theme is water and food security.

“Agriculture is by far the main user of freshwater,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in an address highlighting World Water Day on March 22, 2012.

“Unless we increase our capacity to use water wisely in agriculture, we will fail to end hunger and we will open the door to a range of other ills, including drought, famine and political instability,” Ban Ki-moon continued.

“In many parts of the world, water scarcity is increasing and rates of growth in agricultural production have been slowing,” he said. “At the same time, climate change is exacerbating risk and unpredictability for farmers, especially for poor farmers in low-income countries who are the most vulnerable and the least able to adapt.”

Two weeks prior to this year’s World Water Day, UNICEF and World Health Organization report showed conclusively that poor people in rural areas are overwhelmingly those without these most basic necessities for life.

As the world commemorated World Water Day, UNICEF called on governments to pay particular attention to those who are being left behind in their countries’ progress, especially with regard to access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

“Governments must make sure that their resources achieve real results for the poorest people,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF’s chief of water, sanitation and hygiene. “Otherwise they risk leaving large portions of their populations, particularly children, increasingly vulnerable to disease.”

The report, Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation 2012, says the world met the Millennium Development Goal target for drinking water at the end of 2010, when 89 per cent of the world’s population, or 6.1 billion people, used improved drinking water sources.

However, it says that rural dwellers are several times more likely than their urban counterparts to be without access to safe drinking water. According to the report, globally there is an almost universal disparity of access to safe drinking water in rural areas compared to urban areas.

Of the 783 million people still without improved sources of drinking water in 2010, 653 million are from rural areas. The picture is even worse for sanitation, where globally, 79 per cent of the urban population use an improved sanitation facility compared to 47 per cent of the rural population. Fully 72 per cent of those without access to improved sanitation, or 1.8 billion people, live in rural areas.

UNICEF says the rural-urban divide for safe drinking water is particularly acute in poorer countries. In sub-Saharan Africa the gap between urban and rural is 34 percentage points. On average in Least Developed Countries, ninety-seven out of every 100 rural dwellers do not have piped water on premises.

Overwhelmingly, it is women and girls who are bearing the brunt of the water burden, UNICEF says. Surveys conducted in 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa found that in 71 per cent of all households without water on the premises women or girls are mainly responsible for water collection. Each household typically requires at least one trip a day, and often more, for water collection. It is estimated that women spend a combined total of at least 16 million hours each day collecting drinking water; men spend 6 million hours; and children, 4 million hours.

“Safe drinking water must reach everyone”, says Wijesekera. “We cannot celebrate progress until those who are hardest to reach can also turn on a tap, or go to a well or pump and get enough safe drinking water for their daily needs.”

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UN Photo/Martine Perret

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