Safe Water and Sanitation
‘Before Alina tested our water, we thought that our water was safe. Safe to cook with, safe to drink… it looks clean and it tastes good. We had no reason to worry, we thought.’ The inhabitants of Garla Mare, a village in the south of Romania, get their drinking water from public wells. The local government is responsible for testing the quality of the water in these wells. Due to a lack of financial resources, however, over the past years the wells have not been inspected, nor have they been disinfected. In cooperation with WECF, the local organization Medium & Sanitas tested the water in the wells of Garla Mare. The results of the tests were disturbing: almost all the water samples contained high concentrations of nitrates, bacteria and pesticides. Anyone who drinks this water risks bacterial infections and other kinds of health damage. Especially children are vulnerable to these risks.
Major parts of the rural population of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia have no access to safe drinking water. Bad hygiene and the lack of proper sanitation are main causes for this problem. Leaking pit latrines in the gardens pollute the ground water and waste water infects the drinking water.
The governments of the countries where these problems arise, do rarely pay attention to the subject of safe drinking water. Also, the people concerned are seldom aware of the importance of hygiene and of the health risks of drinking polluted water.
WECF works on the access to safe drinking water and proper sanitary facilities for everyone.
When starting a project on this issue, WECF and partner organizations like Medium & Sanitas start with raising awareness of the risks of drinking polluted water. They provide the possibility for people to test their own drinking water and explain their rights to safe drinking water.
WECF prefers to use preventive methods to improve the water quality. WECF fights the dump of household waste, human and animal waste and pesticides and introduces methods of organic farming to prevent pesticides from polluting the drinking water. WECF also installs ecological toilets with watertight containers to stop faecal bacteria leaking into the ground water.
In case the results these preventive methods are not sufficient to guarantee safe drinking water, WECF cooperates with experts, the local population, universities and governments to implement sustainable and affordable solutions. Possible solutions are the cleaning of existing wells and the construction of new wells.
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3rd World Water Forum - Kyoto 4th World Water Forum Mexico 2006 Afghanistan - Tapping Resources Armenia - Tapping Resources Belarus - Citizens involvement Bulgaria - Safe Sanitation, Health and Dignity Bulgaria - Water, waste and sanitation in rural areas Chemikalien im Alltag Children's Environmental Action Plan for Europe Empowerment & Local Action (ELA) International Year of Sanitation Kyrgyzstan - Decentralised and sustainable wastewater management Moldova - Democratization of the governance of the Dniester river basin Romania - Rural Development for All Romania - Safe drinking water Romania - Safe Sanitation, Health and Dignity Romania - Support programme for the Roma village Prislop ToNi-Finder Ukraine - Co-operation for Sustainable Rural Development Ukraine - Ecological sanitation solutions Ukraine - Safe Drinking Water Ukraine - Safe Sanitation, Health and Dignity Women as the Voice for the Right to a Healthy Environment World Summit on Sustainable Development |
