Overview
We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation and basic health care.
—Kofi Annan, Former United Nations Secretary-General
Clean, safe drinking water is a basic human right yet more than one billion people worldwide live without it. Dirty water affects more people than AIDS and cancer combined.
Every day, more than 5,000 children across the developing world die from diseases related to unclean water; that’s nearly one child every 15 seconds, a casualty rate that is simply staggering. In all, unclean water kills more than four million people worldwide each year — making waterborne-illnesses the leading cause of disease and death worldwide.
The amount of disease related to dirty water is also shocking. It is estimated that no less than 50 percent of all disease is water-related. Water contamination is closely linked to a variety of bacterial, parasitic and other waterborne diseases, including cholera and diarrhea.
In many countries, there is simply no technology or infrastructure available for sustainable water sanitization. Many have no choice but to get their water from the same sources in which animals drink and defecate.
Increasingly, the world is coming to recognize that this crisis must stop. In 2000, the United Nations’ member states adopted the Millennium Development Goals, which seek to cut in half the number of people without access to clean, safe drinking water and basic sanitation by the year 2015.
In support of this mission and Biblical mandates to help those in need, International Aid has developed the world’s first lightweight BioSand water filter, called HydrAid™, which can meet all of a family’s daily water needs for 10 years or more.
The HydrAid™ water filter is built on one of the most effective, proven purification technologies in the world — BioSand filtration. The plastic version International Aid has developed now makes this technology dramatically more portable and low-cost compared to traditional concrete filters — a critical factor in accessing rural and remote areas of the world.
Through International Aid’s safe water initiative, you too can truly play an integral role in addressing one of this world’s leading health crises.
The proposition is simple
For only $32 you can gift a family clean drinking water for 10 years. That’s less than 10 cents a day for just one year. Getting it to a family and ready to use costs another $18. So for just $50 a family can have safe water for the next decade or longer. Most importantly, you may actually help save their lives.
And there is no price you can place on that.