Member Profile: Global Water

Founded in 1982, Global Water is a volunteer-based international, non-profit humanitarian organization with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in the United States. We’re focused on creating safe water supplies, sanitation facilities and hygiene-related facilities for rural villagers in developing countries. We believe the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities are the root causes of hunger, disease and poverty throughout the developing world. Our water projects have an immediate life-changing impact, particularly for women and children, who have the responsibility to gather water for their families every day of their lives. Successful Global Water projects utilize water and sanitation as a tool to create sustainable socioeconomic development in these poor rural communities.

Village of Kalampatzom, Guatemala Water Supply Project –
The first stage of the Kalampatzom water system project was finished during 2008 and consisted of capturing a natural hillside spring with a concrete protection enclosure, building a 3.5 km pipe line to two distribution tanks of 5 cubic meter (5,000 liters) each.

Village of El Mirador, Guatemala Water Supply Project –
In 2008 Global Water supported a water supply project for the village of El Mirador. This project included the creation of an elaborate spring protection/catchment system to collect small natural springs for use by a rural community.

Healthy Schools Program –
In 2008 Global Water continued our ongoing support of the program in Guatemala in conjunction with the Appropriate Technology Program in the Peace Corps. The Healthy Schools Program is a collaborative effort with its goal of developing safe water supplies, latrines, and hygiene facilities, as well as related educational information for rural schools throughout Guatemala. The program involves four organizations – the Peace Corps (providing a volunteer for day to day oversight), Aqua Para La Salud (Guatemalan NGO that provides technical expertise), Global Water (providing primary funding and equipment support), and the Guatemalan Department of Education (providing official recognition of a “Healthy School”).
Here’s a list of some of the Healthy Schools projects funded during 2008 -
Xesajcap I – School hand washing station and latrines
Xesajcap II – School hand washing station and latrines
Parajabey – School hand washing station
Xepanil – School hand washing station
Chuacacay – School hand washing station
Xeabaj – School hand washing station
Chuapural II – School hand washing station
Choantonio – School hand washing station

Village of Cotzol, Guatemala Water Supply Project –
Global Water provided funding for a water supply project for the rural village of Cotzol, Guatemala to service about 500 people living in the village. The water supply system consisted of two spring catchment boxes connecting through piping down the hillside towards the village to a distribution tank of 5m3 (1,300 gallons) built at the village of Cotzol.

Village of San Cayetano, Nicaragua Water Supply Project –
Global Water provided funding for a water supply project for the rural village of San Cayetano, Nicaragua. This project consisted of building a new spring catchment system to replace an old spring system that had failed.

Village of Balsamo, Nicaragua Water Supply Project –
Global Water provided funding for a water supply project for the rural village of Balsamo, Nicaragua. This rural village has 30 houses and 32 families (approximately 160 people) living in the area. This is another old spring catchment system that had failed and needed replacement.

Village of La Flor, Nicaragua Water Supply Project –
Global Water provided funding for a water supply project for the rural village of La Flor, Nicaragua. There was an existing centralized unprotected hand-dug well that is used by villagers in the vicinity of the well. The well was dug deeper, sealed and a rope pump installed.

Village of La Pita, Nicaragua Water Supply Project –
Global Water provided funding for a water supply project for the village of La Pita. The objective of this project was to construct a new gravity-fed water supply system to provide sufficient and safe water for community household uses.

Water Supply Project for Three Villages on the Island of Flores, Indonesia –
The approximate 1,000 inhabitants of the island of Flores, Indonesia must trek many hundreds of feet down dangerous crevices to access natural springs that exist on the island of Flores. Global Water funded a local NGO to build two solar-powered water distribution systems that now pumps water from its current location below the villages of Watu, Maghilewa, and Jere (on the island of Flores) to water storage tanks to be located at each village.

Water Supply Project for the Community of Maweni, Tanzania –
The only water available to the 4,000 residence of the arid community of Maweni is two streams that are highly polluted. There is one stand pipe that turns on every 2 weeks for 30 minutes to service everyone. Global Water partially funded an NGO to build an 80,000 liter rain catchment system at the village primary school for use by the school and community.

Water Supply Project for Communities along the Peruvian Amazon –
Global Water provided funding for students from Florida International University in a project called Project Amazonas to introduce clean water for rural villagers. Specifically, slow-sand filtration water purification systems, combined with rainwater collection were built to provide clean water for individual houses, as well as for schools and clinics, in remote areas along the Peruvian Amazon.

GLOBAL WATER was founded in 1982 by former U.S. Ambassador John McDonald and Dr. Peter Bourne to help save the lives of people in developing countries that are lost due to unclean water.

In 1977 the United Nations hosted a World Conference on Water. One of the many recommendations made by the Conference was to recommend a Decade focused on drinking water and sanitation. In 1978 Ambassador McDonald lifted that paragraph out of the larger World Conference document and decided to make that recommendation a reality. On November 10, 1980 the United Nations General Assembly adopted McDonald’s resolution unanimously and the Decade was launched (1981-1990). McDonald was named the United States Coordinator for the Decade by the State Department in 1979 and has continued his interest in water issues to this day.

Dr. Peter Bourne, a former White House Special Assistant to President Carter, was named United Nations Coordinator for the Decade in 1982, with the rank of Assistant Secretary General and was based in New York. The Decade was a great success bringing 1.1 billion people safe drinking water for the first time in their lives and 769 million people sanitation facilities.”

During this period, Ambassador McDonald traveled extensively to developing nations and saw first hand the problems that unclean water causes people to endure; as he tells it: "Nothing I had ever seen in my life prepared me for the day I landed in Africa. I saw villages where people trekked miles in the hot sun just to get clean water for the day. But even more tragic were the children I saw suffering from the lack of clean water. Many seemed to be just hours from death, and others had lost their vision to trachoma, an easily preventable disease caused by contaminated water."

Rather than providing short-term supplies like food and bottled water that are quickly consumed, GLOBAL WATER focuses on permanent solutions to a region's water needs. A handout fills a stomach for a few hours. Global Water enables entire villages to have clean, healthy water forever in order to change their lives - forever.