Water & Air – Filter Systems News

This #charitytuesday, we are calling attention to the work of Water for People, a nonprofit organization dedicated to innovative, sustainable clean water solutions in 11 different countries in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. Water for People is not just another water charity. The core value that makes this organization unique is sustainability – a drive to create solutions that last.

One of their most innovative solutions lies in a partnership with PlayPumps International and the Case Foundation. PlayPumps are small merry-go-rounds that pump water from underground into a water tank as children spin around on them. The water can then be drawn from a tap directly on the tank.

Water for People also works through local partnerships with government and private organizations, calling on communities to finance their own clean water efforts, and training them to build their own clean water and sanitation systems, so that the projects last beyond those that are normally funded by a one-time monetary grant. This is part of what makes their solutions  sustainable. What’s more, they recently launched an online platform called FLOW (Field Level Operations Watch) that uses mobile phones and GPS to monitor how well water systems in the developing world are functioning. This monitoring system ensures that broken pumps and wells in need of repair are not left untouched – once again ensuring that the projects last well beyond the first drop of clean water that’s produced.

Individuals and organizations can get involved with Water for People by spreading the word through online media, sponsoring fundraising events, shopping the online store or making a donation online.

Water Missions International was founded by George and Molly Greene, formerly owners of an environmental engineering company when Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in 1998. Heartbroken by the devastation, they felt the need to assist in some way. After receiving a request for six water treatment systems, and frustrated in their search to find existing systems that would work, they decided to build their own. Upon arrival in the first village receiving assistance, they were greeted by the “River of Death” – a filthy, disease-laden river, the color of chocolate milk. George and Molly treated the river water, using their newly-engineered system, and placed their lips to it to drink, in order to show the villagers that it was safe. Out of this moment came Water Missions International. George and Molly responded to an inner calling, sold their engineering company, and have never looked back. To date, WMI has distributed mini-water treatment systems, which use a combination of chemical disinfection and filtration, to communities in nine different countries. Every mission involves both the spread of clean water, and the spread of the “living water” message of Christianity.

We are drawing attention to WMI this #charitytuesday, because they were recently in the news for attempting to bring relief, in the form of clean water, to Japan earthquake victims. Unfortunately, the country’s permitting process has forced them to put their efforts on standby at this time – which is both heartbreaking and ironic, considering all of the bottled water that’s been distributed since the devastation – but we are hoping that it won’t be for long. Their efforts elsewhere are still going, full force, and in the meantime, you can donate to Water Missions International directly, through their website.

"Wells 4 Wells - Fighting the Global Water Crisis, One Beer at a Time"

Celebrate World Water Day with beer!

You probably weren’t expecting that, were you? And no … we’re not kidding.

International World Water Day is observed annually on March 22, to raise awareness of the importance of clean water, and to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. It began in March of 1993, and has been a success ever since. This year’s theme is “Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge,” and organizations around the world are holding events in response to the increasing urbanization affecting the water supplies in poor and developing countries. Bloggers are raising awareness through their posts on the top ways to celebrate World Water Day. Social media fanatics are posting related updates to Facebook and twitter several times an hour. World Water Day is in motion, and this morning, we were at a standstill when it came to writing about it. What sort of unique thing could a blog that posts about water on an almost daily basis have to say about World Water Day?

Well, if you’ve been reading our blog, you may have noticed that we are beer advocates as well. You may recall our post on breweries committed to water conservation. So, when we ran across Wells4Wells, and remembered that it is also #charitytuesday, we had to write about it. As stated on their website, Wells4Wells is “Fighting the Water Crisis one beer at a time.” This Thursday, March 24, fifteen participating cities around the country will host their own happy hour. Bars and restaurants will donate a portion of their sales during these hours toward the construction of a well at a school in Africa, providing clean water for over 1,000 children. The cost to build the well, through the water charity, Drop in the Bucket, is $5500. Those who attend the happy hour and purchase the qualifying specials will be doing so for a good cause. If your city is not included, you can still donate to Wells For Wells online.

World Water Day is officially today, but the Wells4Wells event is on Thursday, March 24, which means you’ll be celebrating a little late. But that’s okay, because every day should be World Water Day, anyway, right?

What are you doing in your own life to raise awareness of the need for clean water in cities around the world, today, and (hopefully) every day?

“When you take water, give water.”

This simple concept is the foundation for the UNICEF Tap Project, founded during World Water Week of 2007, to raise funds for millions of children around the world to gain access to clean water. As we’ve mentioned in several of our posts, millions of people lack access to this basic need. In some nations, women and children must walk more than five miles a day just to collect water for their families. This lengthy process prevents them from other opportunities; children are kept from school, and women are kept from performing other basic, but necessary, domestic duties. Water charities like UNICEF’s Tap Project exist to raise money to support clean water and sanitation solutions in developing countries.

Since World Water Week 2011 is next week (March 20-26), we thought UNICEF’s Tap Project would be the perfect charity to feature on our blog to mark #charitytuesday on twitter. What’s unique about this project is their way of raising money. UNICEF partners with hundreds of restaurants across the U.S., asking patrons to donate $1 each time they order free tap water, during World Water Week. Since it’s inception in 2007, UNICEF Tap Project has raised more than $2.5 million toward clean water solutions.

And this year, UNICEF is teaming up with celebrities on a special “Celebrity Tap Project.” Singers, Rhianna and Taylor Swift along with Selena Gomez, and Entourage actor, Adrian Grenier are bottling tap water from their homes. Each $5 donation made to the UNICEF Celebrity Tap Project will give supporters a chance to win a limited edition Celebrity Tap Pack, featuring one bottle of water from each of these celebrities’ home faucets.

While we don’t normally support bottled water, or the celebrity endorsement of bottled water, this is an interesting way to draw attention to the need for clean water in developing nations. It also conveniently drives home the point that most bottled water is nothing more than tap anyway. Even if it comes from a celebrity, we’re willing to bet that most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between their home tap water and the variety that came out of Taylor Swift’s faucet. Still, we can’t help but applaud these four celebrities, and UNICEF, for their innovative efforts.

Entrepreneur, Cynthia Koenig, has invented a simple, yet effective device, that helps ease the water collection process in third world countries. It’s called the WaterWheel and it allows women and children in the villages of developing nations to collect 24 gallons of water (5 times the amount possible with traditional methods) in less time, and much more easily. The design of the WaterWheel allows water to be placed inside its “wheel”, transforming 200 pounds of water, to a much more managable felt weight of 22 pounds, making it lighter and easier to transport over just about any type of terrain.

The time spent collecting water by traditional methods keeps children from being able to go to school, and prevents women from carrying out their daily domestic chores and caring for their families. In many developing nations, they must walk five miles or more a day just to get water, and this can be a dangerous process, and tolling on the body. Traditionally, women carry large, five-gallon water pots on their heads, a method that can severely damage the spine and even cause complications during childbirth. The WaterWheel allows the amount of water necessary for one family to be collected in just one trip.

When I first heard about the WaterWheel, I was concerned that perhaps the water collected would not always be clean. In many cases, women and children may spend hours gathering water for their families, only to get sick from it later. I voiced this concern online, and Koenig, herself, responded with the following:

Hi Selwa-
Thanks for your comment! One of the advantages of the WaterWheel is that it offers end users the flexibility to incorporate it into their current water collection strategies. As you probably know, many people who live without easy access to safe water employ a variety of strategies to obtain clean water depending on the geographic location and time of year. So, people who are accustomed to collecting their water from open sources, then purifying it at the point of use can continue to do so. Along the same lines, safe water that is collected from taps can be hygienically transported and stored. A key part of our strategy involved working with partners across the clean water value chain to educate our consumers about the importance of clean water.

We  applaud Koenig for such an innovative solution to the burden of water collection in developing countries. Join our applause by retweeting and/or sharing this post!

“Wine symbolizes fortune in our society. Our goal is to give the fortunate population an opportunity to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.” – Wine To Water

Wine to Water is based on the story of Jesus' first miracle where he turned water into wine.

Doc Hendley, founder of Wine to Water, dreamed up the concept of this water charity while bartending and playing music in nightclubs in Raleigh in 2003. The dream became reality in 2004, when he held his first fundraiser – a wine event that helped him pay for the installation of water systems in Darfur, Sudan. In fact, Doc was living in Darfur in August of that same year, installing the systems, himself.

Wine to Water is based on Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding. When the host ran out of wine, Jesus told the servants to fill six stone water pots with water and draw some out for the headwaiter of the party. When the headwaiter tasted the water that had been turned into wine, he called the bridegroom and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2: 9-10). Wine to water seeks to allow Jesus to turn this miracle around for the needy people of the world who don’t have access to clean water by turning the funds raised from the sale of wine into clean water projects.

Wine tastings are the main type of fundraiser event supported by Wine to Water; however, Doc encourages anyone to be creative – to get involved by hosting other types of events as well, such as “a benefit concert, a fundraising dinner, a 5K race or walk, or school dance.” Doc fullfilled this dream the only way he knew how at the time: by playing music and pouring wine; now he encourages others to use their unique talents for the common goal.

Wine to Water has helped to provide clean water to people in 9 countries since 2004. Those who don’t wish to host an event can still donate to the cause directly on the website. The organization also makes and distributes their very own wine – Old Vine Zinfandel and Estate Chardonnay – by the bottle or by the case. A portion of all proceeds from every bottle sold goes toward supporting clean water and sanitation efforts.

Since Tuesday is #charitytuesday on twitter, we thought we’d do a weekly feature on one of our favorite water charities. Today we’ve picked one that’s not on our original water charity list: World Walks for Water. It’s a global event that takes place from March 19-22 of this year, that aims to raise awareness of the world’s clean water and sanitation crisis. Anyone may participate in this global demand for strong government action to stop the needless death of thousands every day.

I think of it as a peaceful protest for clean water.

Millions of women and children miss out on the chance to get an education due to the poverty that ensues from a lack of access to clean water. They must spend hours a day traveling to and fro to collect water for their families – water that is dirty and will likely make them sick – and even more hours a day caring for their sick loved ones. Though many water charities exist and are working to solve this crisis, corrupt politics can often ruin even the most sincere charitable efforts. World Walks for Water stands up to those politics, by demanding that these issues be ignored no longer.

Those of us who are more privileged take clean water for granted. What’s worse, rather than investing in technology that purifies water in safe, healthy ways, our governments use toxic chemicals to disinfect our water. (Fortunately, there are companies like Filters Fast that provide ways to filter them out.) World Walks for Water is a chance for all of us to stand up and demand that the world’s entire population, rich or poor, have access to safe water and sanitation. It’s an event that unites people from all walks of life.

You can join the online walk directly on the website. Online walkers are featured on the home page with cartoon characters holding water jugs and walking in a straight line. Each time your mouse rolls over a character, a quote, like “taps and toilets for all,” or “children at school, not walking for water” is displayed on his or her water jug. To join this colorful cast of characters, simply visit the website and fill out the form. Then, if you want to sign up to participate in a walk in your area, or even organize your own walk, you can do that from the website as well. We just joined the virtual walk and are pretty excited about it.

Join the walk for water, and tell your friends by retweeting this post!

Just like bottled water companies, clean water advocates in nonprofit efforts have caught on to the best advertising tool in the market: Celebrities. Many celebrities have given their fame and money to good causes. (Sadly, many celebrities endorse bottled water, also, but that’s a post for another day.) The latest trend among stars like Mark Ruffalo, Adam Lambert, Alyssa Milano and Matt Damon is clean water. We thought we’d take some time to highlight what these celebrities are doing to ensure access to clean water in the U.S. and beyond.

Mark Ruffalo – The Fight Against Natural Gas Fracking

The grassroots organization, Frack Action, was struggling to garner media attention for their opposition to natural gas drilling in New York State, until they brought Mark Ruffalo on board. Fracking is a process that involves injecting water and chemicals under high pressure into rock formations, in order to extract natural gas. Filmmaker, Josh Fox, recently portrayed the consequences of fracking in his documentary, Gasland, in which farmers across the U.S. can be seen to light their tap water on fire from natural gas contamination.  Ruffalo dedicates himself to the cause with full force, as an unpaid volunteer. He has attended meetings and hearings, lobbied with activists and visited colleges to raise awareness among students. His fame is helping to bring attention to an issue that, otherwise, may have received very little. In fact, it was rumored several months ago that his private screening of Fox’s film may have landed him on the government’s Terror Watch List. Whether or not the rumor is true doesn’t matter; Ruffalo is one celebrity who won’t sell out. He is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in.

Adam Lambert and Alyssa Milano – Happy Birthday to the Less Fortunate

2009 American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert is donating his 29th birthday to charity: water – one of many water charities dedicated to bringing clean water to those in developing countries. The concept is simple: instead of asking for gifts for your birthday, ask your friends and family to make donations through your mycharity: water website (which is very easy to set up). All of the proceeds will go toward funding clean water projects in countries like Africa, Asia, Honduras and Haiti. With the mycharity: water website, everyone can follow in Adam Lambert’s footsteps. In fact, Lambert is not the first celebrity to donate his birthday to water charity. Alyssa Milano’s mycharity: water campaigns raised over $92,000 for her 37th birthday in 2009, and another $39,551 for her 38th birthday at the end of last year. Lambert’s goal, is $290,000 by the 29th, as he said in a recent tweet.

Matt Damon – Water.org

If you follow us on twitter, by now you probably know that we are big fans of Water.org. Like charity: water, this organization is dedicated to funding clean water, hygiene and sanitation projects in developing nations. Matt Damon co-founded Water.org with Gary White, and has since been heavily invested in its work. Recently, he accepted the Joel Siegel Award for his work with Water.org, at the Critic’s Choice Awards. We think you should follow them on twitter: @Water.

The Facebook giveaways are drawing to a close, but before they end, we want to hear from all of our Facebook fans:

What will you do with the $250 Visa gift card grand prize? (That is, if you win…)

We have launched a new poll (to the right) where you may cast your vote. The options are:

1. Pay your water bill.

2. Buy a new water filter system (from Filters Fast, of course!)

3. Buy an air purifier

4. Give it away to a water charity

5. Other

Of course you don’t have to do any of these things. These are just our suggestions. We have included “other” as an option, in case you have a better idea. All we ask is that if you choose “other”, please specify what you will do in a comment on our Facebook page. We have also given you the option to choose more than one answer – in hopes that your water bill is significantly less than $250 (as it should be, if you’re doing your part to conserve and take care of our planet!)

If you have read this far and have no idea what we’re talking about, click here to see how you can enter to win $250 and more with Filters Fast!

Happy polling!

Perhaps you are familiar with the PUR line of pitcher filters, refrigerator filters and faucet water filters. Here in the U.S. we are fortunate enough to have had access to clean water for quite some time, along with the tools to filter out chemicals, such as chlorine, which make it that way. But those in the developing world have only recently been introduced to the technology that makes our water clean. It is part of the PUR line of products and it comes in the form of a powder, contained in a small four-ounce packet.

Each packet of powdered mixture is able to clean up to 10 liters of dirty water, removing 99.9 percent of intestinal bacteria, intestinal viruses and protozoa. The PUR packet has been proven to reduce diarrheal disease incidence – one of the leading causes of death in the developing world – by up to 90 percent.

The PUR packet was developed by Proctor & Gamble (P&G) in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Dr. Allgood of P&G started the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program after a touching visit with a woman in Kenya seven years ago, turning the distribution of the PUR packet into a nonprofit effort. To date, they have been able to produce more than one billion liters of clean water for children and families in over 40 developing countries. The packets are smaller and easier to ship than plastic water bottles, for faster distribution.

The packet is easy to use: Simply pour its powdered contents into ten liters of water and stir for five minutes. Wait five more minutes for the large dirt particles to settle, and pour the water over a clean cloth into another container. The cloth will filter out large particles of dirt, leaving you with crystal clear water. Wait another 20 minutes before drinking to ensure that all of the microorganisms are killed.View Dr. Allgood’s demonstration of this, here.