Project440's Xanga

Contaminated water kills a child every 15 seconds...

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:58:28 GMT

...from something as preventable as diarrhea. (cf. www.worldvision.org Water is Life video)

It has been two years since Project440 occurred, but the efforts to end the global water crisis have not subsided in the least! If anything, the problem has become more publicized and everyone--from activists to actors, corporations to churches--is participating. This Saturday is World Water Day once again. See the site for details. To find out more ways to help bring life-saving clean water to the world's poor, also check out www.charityis.com, and www.worldvision.org.

As March Madness approaches, consider organizing a benefit event and getting your community involved--fun for your friends means water for the world. Every dollar counts, every drop counts! See some of our older entries for ideas on how you can start your own Project440 at your office or school.

Have a blessed Holy Week,
-Project 440

Snob Appeal of Tap Water

Tue, 15 May 2007 19:22:40 GMT

There was an interesting Slate article recently (The New Snob Appeal of Tap Water) about a shift from bottled water towards tap water because it creates a smaller carbon footprint. It's also a good reminder of just how good we have it to have so much clean water so readily available.

'In March, the San Francisco Chronicle spotted a hot new food trend in the Bay Area. Instead of offering diners a choice of still or sparkling bottled water with their (inevitably) locally grown delectables, trendoid restaurants such as Incanto, Poggio, and Nopa now offer glorified tap water. Sustainable-dining pioneer Chez Panisse has also joined the crowd, tossing Santa Lucia overboard for filtered municipal water, carbonated on-site. The reason: It takes a lot of energy to create a bottle of water and ship it from Europe to California. And so of-the-moment bistros can boost their enviro cred by giving away tap water instead of selling promiscuously marked-up bottled water. "Our whole goal of sustainability means using as little energy as we have to," Mike Kossa-Rienzi, general manager of Chez Panisse, told the Chronicle. "Shipping bottles of water from Italy doesn't make sense."'

The New Snob Appeal of Tap Water

World Water Day

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:38:57 GMT

Today is World Water Day. There will be events in different cities today and on the 24th. Visit http://www.worldwaterday.net/ to find and event near you.

Also, charity: water wants to raise enough to build two wells today. To find out more information, visit http://www.charityis.org/newsletters/wwd.html

In other news, on March 15th, the Wall Street Journal published an article about Coke’s new role in bringing clean water to communities in India. ("Why Coke Aims to Slake Global Thirst for Safe Water", Betsy McKay) A copy of the article can be found at http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2007/1027.html

World Water Day

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:38:48 GMT

World Water Day

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:38:43 GMT

World Water Day

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:38:41 GMT

March 22 - World Water Day

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 20:55:42 GMT

It’s been a year since Project440 raised almost $95,000 to fund the construction of more than 5 wells in Haiti. Thanks again to all of our gracious contributors!

World Water Day is coming up again on March 22, 2007. This year’s theme is: Coping with Water Scarcity. Lest we forget that over 1.2 billion people don’t have access to clean water, please visit the official site (http://www.worldwaterday.org/) to learn more about what you can do.

Nearly 2 million children die each year from waterborne diseases — roughly one child every fifteen seconds.

It is estimated that 60 million children per year suffer from stunted growth and development due to waterborne diarrhea-related diseases.

At any given time, patients suffering from waterborne diseases occupy 50 percent of the world’s hospital beds. In some developing countries, the figure reaches 80 percent.

Women in developing countries spend an average of six hours per day collecting water — time that could be spent parenting, learning, or working.

Improved water and sanitation have been demonstrated to lead to significant reductions in morbidity and mortality with almost immediate impact. The estimated return on every dollar invested in improved water and sanitation is US$7 - $34.

charity: water

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 00:09:45 GMT

Check out this video from charity: water, a new group based in New York working to raise awareness about the global water crisis. They're very new, but growing fast.

If you're in New York, come to the charity: ball on Monday, December 18th. To lend their support for the cause, Adrian Grenier from Entourage will be hosting along with Jessica Stam, the current face of Armani and BCBG. Also attending will be Leonardo DiCaprio, Terry George (if you haven't seen Hotel Rwanda, you really need to), Matthew Modine, Lauren Bush, Kevin Connelly, and Cyndi Lauper. You can buy tickets to the ball at the charity: water website.

You can also help by purchasing cases of gift wrapped charity: water bottles for your friends and family for the holidays. 100% of the proceeds will go to fund new wells built by charity: water's four partners, Healing Hands International, Water for People, Concern Worldwide, and Living Water International.

For information go to www.charityis.com
Information about the ball is available here.

From New York to West Africa

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 00:38:41 GMT

Check out this new video on World Vision's website about the water crisis in West Africa: http://worldvision.org/water06

Also, there is a new organization in New York spreading awareness of the water crisis across the world. It's called CharityIs, and you can visit their website at www.charityis.com. They've been generating buzz by setting up installations across Manhattan. Below is a video documenting their efforts.

Water, Water Everywhere?

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:43:44 GMT

Thank you, everyone who contributed and helped to get the word out on Project 440. It has been a while since we've posted, but we want to keep water awareness at the forefront of our minds. The Economist ran an interesting story on their website this past week. The link requires a subscription, but I've also pasted the text below. Italics and emphasis added.

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_SRTVVGT

------------------------------------

Water, Water Everywhere?

Some two billion people are short of water. But, with a little ingenuity, there should be more than enough to go round.

Is the world running out of water? A group of scientists, economists and development experts who have been studying the question for the past five years think they have the answer. Their "Comprehensive Assessment", backed by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation and various research institutes, governments and aid groups, will be released in November. But at the World Water Week, a conference now underway in Sweden, they have revealed some early findings. The bad news is that a third of the world's population, some two billion people, are already short of water. But things do not have to be this way.

Roughly 900m people, the assessment finds, live in river basins where there is barely enough to keep rivers flowing and lakes filled. Another 700m live in basins rapidly approaching this "closed" state, and a billion more live within reach of adequate water supplies but cannot afford to make use of them. The water table is falling fast in densely populated and poor regions of China, Mexico and India. If current trends in water consumption continue, these grim statistics will only worsen.

The main culprit is agriculture. It takes roughly 3000 litres of water to grow enough for one person for one day, or about a litre for each calorie. Demand for water will grow as the world's population increases and as people eat more--and more meat in particular. Raising livestock requires more water, per calorie, than growing crops. So the assessment suggests that, by 2050, agriculture will consume twice as much water as it does today. Industry and domestic use, which now account for only a small fraction of water consumption, are also growing quickly. Global warming adds another layer of uncertainty and risk.

In theory, the world would still have more than enough water to feed everyone, under most scenarios. But it might require much more food to be traded from sodden parts of Europe, North America and Russia to parched bits of Africa and Asia. Needless to say, subsistence farmers in those continents are in no position to pay for imports of food--and will become even poorer, presumably, if their water runs short. A few poor, dry and teeming countries, such as Egypt, already depend on food imports, along with the odd rich one, like Japan. But most governments are loth to put their consumers at the mercy of the world's imperfect markets.

Instead, governments have traditionally tried to increase agricultural output through huge and expensive irrigation projects. But smaller investments, in simple devices such as pumps to tap groundwater, are faster to deploy, yield greater returns on capital, and bring fewer environmental and social problems. Modest outlays on rain-fed agriculture, in particular, could sharply raise farmers' productivity in poor countries, and so help both to lift their incomes and to reduce the need for an expansion of agriculture elsewhere.

Over half of world's food comes from rain-fed farms, as opposed to irrigated ones. Most of the world's poorest farmers, including the vast majority in Africa, rely on rain for their livelihoods. If the rains fail, so do the crops. Channels to harvest and direct rainfall, and small, sealed reservoirs or tanks to store it, would not only see them through dry spells, but also allow them to eke bigger harvests out of the same fields. If adopted on a grand scale, the assessment argues, such techniques could double crop yields. In that case, the area under cultivation globally would only have to rise 10% to meet rising demand for food--and there would be plenty of water to go round.