09 Sep Humanitarian Inernational Services Group and WorldWater
DARFUR, SUDAN- Humanitarian International Services Group (HISG) and World Water and Solar Technologies, Inc., have worked together to install two high-volume Mobile Max Pure® water filters in the war-torn region of Darfur, Sudan. Each filter was placed in a carefully selected location where they will provide clean water for hundreds of thousands of men, women and children.
Six years of civil war in Darfur have forced more than 2.7 million people forced out their homes. Many of these people have migrated into crowded Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps, and the large resettlements have placed impossibly high demands on the area’s meager water supply. The World Health Organization estimates that 80% of all disease is related to inadequate or unsafe water. In Darfur, even the rainy season brings no relief, because with so many people living in such cramped conditions, the water does not stay clean for long. The contaminated water spreads diseases quickly through entire villages.
The Mobile Max Pure® unit placed in Nyala, South Darfur, had an immediate impact for the 150,000 people living in IDP camps surrounding the town. The town had been drawing water from a polluted source, but the filter system provided clean water that was so instrumental in curbing recent cholera outbreaks that the Governor asked to meet with HISG staff who helped place it. This opportunity to meet face to face with the Governor is the first such meeting for a non-government organization.
Besides supplying water for the people of Darfur, this project has produced a distinct shift in how Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission perceived their role in meeting the community’s need for water. HISG has worked to keep officials from the Commission involved in the process from the very beginning. Now, rather than viewing the water filters as an NGO-owned and operated initiative, the local government officials have taken ownership of the
project, and are taking responsibility for the long-term use and success of the filters.
It is easy to take something as basic as clean water for granted, but in many parts of the world, it is still the difference between healthy and feeble, or between life and death, especially for children and the elderly who cannot travel long distances to find clean water, and who are most vulnerable to waterborne illnesses. The Mobile Max Pure® systems from World Water doing the impossible in Sudan; saving lives and bringing hope to broken communities.
[download_box]Click on the link below to download pdf.
Darfur – HISG Project Release 090909 WW[/download_box]
