One of the highlights of the Karagwe 2016 trip was to see provisions that KAD made for water since our last visit: The borehole and the water harvesting system.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Team 2015 (Christopher Jones of Inventoris and John Wade of MSAADA) could have joined us and seen their hard work come to fruition.

The arrival of water on KARUCO’s campus makes everything possible. This blog will focus on the challenges to possibilities as seen in the STATISTICS OF THE WATER CRISIS presented by The Water Project.

Just Imagine…

783 million people do not have access to clean and safe water. 37% of those people live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
1 in 9 people world wide do not have access to safe and clean drinking water.
443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related diseases.
In developing countries, as much as 80% of illnesses are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions.
Half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with people suffering from a water-related disease.
Girls under the age of 15 are twice as likely as boys to be the family member responsible for fetching water.

Over half of the developing world’s primary schools don’t have access to water and sanitation facilities. Without toilets, girls often drop out at puberty.
Less than one in three people in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to a proper toilet.
84% of the people who don’t have access to improved water, live in rural areas, where they live principally through subsistence agriculture.
The average container for water collection in Africa, the jerry can, weighs over 40 lbs when full.
Almost two-thirds, 64% of households rely on women to get the family’s water when there is no water source in the home.

Globally we use 70% of our water sources for agriculture and irrigation, and only 10% on domestic uses.
Nearly 1 out of every 5 deaths under the age of 5 worldwide is due to a water-related disease.
According to the World Health Organization, for every $1 invested in water and sanitation, there is an economic return of between $3 and $34!
By investing in clean water alone, young children around the world can gain more than 413 million days of health!
The United Nations estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa alone loses 40 billion hours per year collecting water; the same as an entire year’s labor in all of France!
Research has shown that for every 10% increase in women’s literacy, a country’s whole economy can grow by up to 0.3%.

Think what good things are happening in Karagwe because of the efforts of so many. Here are the water storage tanks that will help transform life in rural Tanzania.