Clean Water for All

Clean water keeps people healthy. Dirty water can carry germs that cause stomach pain and fever. In many villages, people now use simple filters made of sand and cloth. The filter cleans the water in a few hours. Boiling water for five minutes also kills most germs. Schools teach children to wash hands with soap before eating. When a village gets clean water, fewer children miss school. A small well or filter can change daily life for hundreds of families. A village in Kenya built its first well five years ago. Before the well, women walked two hours to a river and carried heavy buckets home. Now the well stands near the school, and a hand pump brings water from deep in the ground. The village keeps the well clean: nobody washes clothes beside it, and animals drink from a separate trough. A committee collects a small amount of money each month for repairs. When the pump broke last year, a young woman had learned how to fix it, and the water returned the same day. The head teacher says more children come to class now and fewer are sick. Clean water, she says, is the beginning of every other good thing.