Clean water, a basic necessity, but not available to everyone
By: Abeeha Saleem
Tags: Amal Fellowship, Clean Water, Megaprojects

Clean water is one of the necessities of human life. About 70% of our body is made of water and we actually live on it. Drinking water isn’t only a basic need but also important for our health. It helps prevent headaches, hypertension, and even Kidney issues. We all know the importance of clean and safe drinking water and how it is good for our health. But imagine if you don’t get to drink clean water, or the water you drinking is actually a health hazard for you.

According to UNICEF more than two-thirds of households drink bacterially contaminated water and, every year, 53,000 Pakistani children die of diarrhea after drinking it. Groundwater in Pakistan is not safe as it is often contaminated with fecal matter, industrial waste, and Arsenic. Due to these contaminants, almost anyone can suffer from waterborne diseases like cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A, diarrhea etcetera. The commonly used alternative is bottled water or mineral water.

About 55 million people are under the poverty line in Pakistan who live in slums. These people don’t have access to basic needs like food, shelter, or clothes, how can they afford bottled water? To quench their thirst, they have to drink dirty water from ponds. They drink water contaminated with sewage waste, industrial waste, and most importantly high levels of arsenic. They don’t have awareness about this situation and the government isn’t working to provide them clean water.

In our project, we were asked to make a plan for any problem that we care about. I think people who need our help the most are children growing up in slums. Half of these kids don’t even make it to adulthood without having a major disease. If given the chance I, with the help of my team, will raise awareness. We will educate them about this issue and try to help them.

As an alternative as we can’t give them clean water to drink we will give them some other plans. Like how to filter and sanitize this dirty water. The best and most economical method I learned about is “Sand and charcoal filter”.

In this method, we take sand or soil and charcoal from any source available. A plastic bottle is cut in half, layering is done as:

1. Place a washable cloth at the tip of the bottle, from where drinkable water will come

2. Place charcoal layer over it, make sure charcoal is in the form of powder

3. Place sand pebbles over it, we can add another layer of soil over it if we want

The layering is done after it tests the filter by adding water to it. Basic sanitization takes almost 30 minutes or a little more time. In the end, we get clean and safe water without any salts being stripped out. The sand layer holds the microbes while charcoal layers hold minerals and other hazardous agents without removing salts. This method is not only economical but also safe as it doesn’t impart color.

The water can be made safer after boiling it if needed. This water is now potable and safe from any harmful microbe. This practice can be safely done and it also reduces plastic waste as the bottle is getting used and reused. We can also use big tankers to do this and help people consume clean sanitary water without wasting anything.