Sink or swim? More like swim and sink...

Many people don't realise that water contamination is one of the top five killers in the world. It is a HUGE issue that could easily be prevented at a low cost. There are also many opportunities for sustanable design to solve the problems of easy clean water access and adequate sanitation all over the world. I wanted to focus on an issue that was not only local or even national, but worldwide. I orignially wanted to make people AWARE of the issues caused by water contamination, but later in my critcal thinking decided to become part of the solution as well. I know from personal experience, that guerilla art can easily be passed by and have no affect on some and I had to think of ways to make it personal for others. My tactic not only includes awareness, but interaction and involement as well...

THE FACTS

Key facts and Statistics

• 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world's population. (WHO/UNICEF)
• 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of the world's population. (WHO/UNICEF)
• 1.4 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to around 4,000 deaths a day or one every 20 seconds. (WHO)
• WaterAid projects providing safe water, sanitation and hygiene education cost just $30 per head. (WaterAid)
• Hand-washing with soap at critical times can reduce the incidence of diarrhea by up to 47%. (UN Water)
• The integrated approach of providing water, sanitation and hygiene reduces the number of deaths caused by diarrheal diseases by an average of 65%. (WHO)
• For every $1 invested in water and sanitation, $8 is returned. (UNDP).
• The weight of water that women in Africa and Asia carry on their heads is commonly 40 pounds, the same as an airport luggage allowance.
• Water and sanitation infrastructure helps people take the first essential step out of the cycle of poverty and disease. In the UK the expansion of sanitation infrastructure in the 1880s contributed to a 15 year increase in life expectancy in the following four decades.

Water in the world

• 97.5% of the earth's water is saltwater. If the world's water fitted into a bucket, only one teaspoonful would be drinkable. 
• While the world's population tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold. Within the next fifty years, the world population will increase by another 40 to 50%. (World Water Council)

Water-related diseases

• At any one time, half of the developing world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from diarrhea. (UNDP)
• Intestinal worms infect about 10% of the population of the developing world. Intestinal parasitic infections can lead to malnutrition, anemia and stunted growth. (WHO) 
• Children in poor environments often carry 1,000 parasitic worms in their bodies at a time. (UNICEF)
• The average North American uses 400 liters of water every day.  
• The average person in the developing world uses 10 liters of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking. (Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC)
• An old lavatory uses at least nine liters of water a flush; a low-flush model uses as little as three liters.  
• On current trends over the next 20 years humans will use 40% more water than they do now. (UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
• Agriculture accounts for over 80% of the world's water consumption. (UN Environment Programme (UNEP
• The average amount of water needed to produce one kilogram of potatoes is 1000 liters, wheat is 1450 liters and rice is 3450 liters. (Gleick 2001)
• Sanitation
• Every year, the average person produces 35 kilos of feces and 500 liters of urine. (UN Water)
• One gram of human feces can contain 10,000,000 viruses, 1,000,000 bacteria, 1000 parasite cysts, 100 parasite eggs. (UNICEF)
• No sub-Saharan African country is on-track to meet the sanitation Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of people without sanitation between 1990 and 2015. (WHO/UNICEF)
• Every year, around 60 million children in the developing world are born into households without access to sanitation. (UN Water)
• Children living in households with no toilet are twice as likely to get diarrhea as those with a toilet. (WEDC)
• In the developing world as a whole, around 90% of sewage is discharged untreated into rivers, polluting them and affecting plant and aquatic life. (UN)

Education and Livelihoods

• Lack of safe water and sanitation costs sub-Saharan Africa around 5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) each year. (UNDP)
• 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related diseases.
• 11% more girls attend school when sanitation is available. (UK Government Department for International Development)
• 40 billion working hours are spent carrying water each year in Africa. (Cosgrove and Rijsberman 1998)
• Households in rural Africa spend an average of 26% of their time fetching water, and it is generally women who are burdened with the task. (UK Government Department for International Development)

Water, sanitation and the Millennium Development Goals

• 1.2 billion people gained access to sanitation between 1990 and 2004. (UN Water)
• 1.7 billion people will still need sanitation even if the 2015 MDG sanitation goal to halve the proportion of people without sanitation is reached. (WHO/UNICEF)
• Cost of meeting the sanitation MDG target every year until 2015: US$9.5 billion. If sustained the same investment could achieve basic sanitation for the entire world within 20 years. US$9.5 billion a year is 1% of annual world military spending and an estimated one-third of what the world spends on bottled water every year. (UN Water)
• Cost of meeting the water and sanitation MDG targets every year until 2015 is US$11.3 billion. (UN Water)

WaterAid.org

WaterAid.org is a website I found in my research. Originally I was only looking for statistics about water contamination, but WaterAid inspired me to do more with my project. WaterAid's vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation. Their mission is to overcome poverty by enabling the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education. There website is set up to not only provide information about water contamination, but educational materials, free access to materials, images, games, projects and reports, and a donation site. I was also drawn to this organization because they look for solutions through sustainable design for all parts of the world.

Real Life Stories...

GHANA

Ayisa's Story

Mother of five Ayisa Bombu, 35, lives in the Ghanaian city of Tamale. She is five months pregnant with her sixth child.

An intermittent piped water supply means Ayisa has to resort to fetching water from a large pond formed by a dam.

The water is pea green, flies are buzzing across the surface of the water, plants are growing in the water and garbage is strewn across the banks. There are cows drinking from the water and there are animal droppings everywhere.

Ayisa described how she felt about collecting water from here:

“There are days I can come here more than six times to fetch water. I live a mile from here. I have young children who help me with the water collection and other family who will help me when the new baby comes.

"We use this water for all domestic work when the pipes don’t work. You look at this water and you find it difficult to drink, but we are compelled to drink it sometimes.

"Even if you boil it it has a scum on top. When you look at this color you can’t think about drinking it without treating it so we put alum in it to clean it. Normally when we do this it gets a bit cleaner but there are still some particles in it. When it is very sunny the water has foam on top.

"In the dry season it dries up a bit. One year it dried up completely.

"I have to go home now to cook. I am the only woman in my house and I have so many domestic chores."

Photo: WaterAid / Jon Spaull

BANGLEDESH

Ruby's Story

Ruby lives in Balar Math, an overcrowded informal settlement in Bangladesh's capital city Dhaka. There are no water or sanitation facilities here.

Her life is very challenging, as she described:

"This slum has existed for 10 years and is in a shocking state. Hanging latrines feed straight into a garbage-filled ditch in the middle of the slum. Five thousand households live here with no clean water and no sanitation. There are old handpumps but they are not deep enough and the sinking water table means that only a small amount of water can be drawn from them each day.

"Many people get very ill here and I think it all stems from the open latrines. Smell the stench, it’s disgusting. We get fevers, coughs and terrible diarrhea and there are no healthcare facilities that we can use. We spend lots of time bringing water from a handpump about 20 minutes' walk away. You have to queue for at least two hours to get the water.
"I earn between 500-1000 taka per month and I have to spend about 100 taka on water. At least we are surviving. Our biggest fear is that we get evicted from the slum by the government.’’

Photo: WaterAid / Abir Abdullah

TANZANIA
Nakwetikya's Story

Nakwetikya from Ndedo, Tanzania, used to have to collect the scarce water available, polluted with animal and human waste, from the bottom of deep and dangerous hand-dug pits. Sickness and deaths were common. But life changed with the WaterAid project.

"The situation here used to be bleak," she explains. "There was no water and we had to dig pits to find some. Can you imagine what it was like? My legs used to shake with fear before climbing down those holes. There was no choice. If I didn't get water my family couldn't eat, wash or even have a drink.

"When I heard that we were going to get clean water I remember laughing, it was so funny. I can only compare it to someone who is in prison for a long time. When they are set free it's the most fantastic experience.

"Since having the new water source life has changed in so many amazing ways. My status as a woman has been finally recognized. I have the time to look after my family as we have more time and energy.

 "Before we formed a committee and prepared ourselves as a community, men just saw women as animals. I think they thought of us as bats flapping around them. They had no respect for us and no-one would allow you to speak or listen to what you had to say. When I stand up now in a group I am not an animal. I am a woman with a valid opinion. We have been encouraged and trained and the whole community has learned to understand us."

Photo: WaterAid / Alex Macro

INDIA

Nita's Story:

Premnega Primary School

Nita is a student at Premnega Primary School in Uttar Pradesh, India, where WaterAid and local partner organization Gramonati Sansthan have built latrines, and promoted good hygiene practices.

As a member of the water committee formed as part of the project, Nita is responsible for collecting drinking water from the school pump and making sure it is kept clean, as she described:

"When we collect water we have to clean the pot, cover it, and use a ladle to take water out. If we don’t do this young children put their hands in it and the water becomes dirty. We keep water covered so that dust from cleaning the house will not go inside. Hands can be very dirty so we should wash them, especially after using the latrine.

"In the water committee, we collect water, clean the pots, get water from the handpumps, and when the children ask for water, we get it for them. We make the children stand in a line to get clean drinking water. One person will pour the water and drink without letting their mouth touch the pot. In the morning we clean the pots – if we don’t do this, the dirt will come.

"In the water from the open well, dust and germs go inside and if we drink this water we will get ill. We tell our parents that we should keep the water covered and get a ladle. Some of our mothers had ladles before but the rest of us have purchased them since. We use the ladles because our hands are not clean and it will contaminate the water”

Photo: WaterAid / Marco Betti

TACTIC!

These are the stickers and labels for my tactic. The idea is to "attack" a persons water bottle while they are not looking and late they will discover a new label on their bottle containing this information about water contamination. The sticker includes a statistic about water contamination, a donation statement to WaterAid and the investment in a small donation. The main grapic portrays a heartbeat line going flat, yet is blue to represent water and also forms into a wave for water. I chose to do five statistics as they were the most broad and disturbing in numbers. The stickers are also intended to be handed out so others may "attack" their peers and friends to spread the word...

however this is not the end of my tactic.......

BUT...I took it a little further...

After choosing my topic of water contamination and providing free sticker lables for my guerilla tactic, I felt like I wasn't making a big enough difference. I wanted to actually provide and support my chosen cause and interect with WaterAid which helped me in so much of my research! I wanted to target my college peers, but how could I connect with them?
PROBLEM: we're all bored, broke and breathless from running around campus
SOLUTION: cheap water with a shock factor!

So, I decided to set up camp in the arts building with a water station. I bought 125 water bottles. I relabeled them with my own label stickers and sold them for $1. The profits all go to WaterAid.org with which I set up a donor account. I then had four water bottles filled with "dirty water". Each was accompanied by a vulgar fact of its contaminates, a country where contaminated water is a major issue and a story of a person in that country. Overall, I could only afford to raise $125 for a donation with my time and monetary limitations, however that little amount will save hundreds of lives.

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