Water: The First Essential in Nutrition

This article first appeared in Action Against Hunger Spain’s newsletter #30.

Water is the basis of life. Oceans, seas and lakes cover three-fourths of the earth's surface. Our bodies are roughly 70% water. Yet more than 1 billion people lack access to clean water. There are numerous reasons: deserts, lack of treatment technology, political conflicts. Yet more often than not, the lack of clean water is caused by mishandling and misuse rather than by unavailability.

The numbers that cause concern are enormous: 2.6 billion people have no access to basic water treatment, and 3 million die each year due to illnesses caused by water, the majority being children younger than five. The problem's scale seem to require solutions with vast scope: large systems to treat water, mass exports of bottled water, fleets of trucks that reach remote communities, technology that converts ocean water into fresh water, and so on. Often, however, effective solutions are much simpler and less costly. For example:

The Mecate Pump

This is a very simple and economical solution that can be constructed locally at a cost of about 100 dollars. The Mecate Pump ("mecate" in Central America means "rope") is an adaptation of a traditional system revived in China in the 1960s and greatly improved more recently in Nicaragua. To date, there are more than 25,000 Mecate Pumps in Central America, providing water at a rate of 20 liters per minute to families and entire communities. The pump has also been introduced in numerous African countries. A Nicaraguan web page www.ropepump.com explains it, as does the sidebar entitled "How Does the Mecate Pump Work?" Action Against Hunger has participated in the dissemination of this technology in Angola, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and will soon start in other countries in Africa and Asia.

"I like to always give the example of the Vereda El Banquito," says Claudia Viviana Hurtado, Action Against Hunger's Coordinator of water treatment in Colombia, "where the installation of the Mecate Pump became a bond among those who were displaced by violence and were relocated in this small village. They are proud because they built their water system themselves, they administered it and they improved it."

How Does the Mecate Pump Work?

A Mecate Pump is normally installed in a well or borehole. It consists of an iron frame with an attached wheel (which could be a bicycle tire) and a handle. Turning the handle moves a rope with attached plungers along tubes to the bottom of the well. The rope with its plungers pushes the water to the top of the pump where the water can be easily reached. Water can be pumped as high as 50 meters. The diameter of the tubes depends on the depth of the water. Mecate pumps permit access to deep water. Their greatest advantage over traditional bucket systems is that their wells are better protected against external contamination and therefore safer for a population.

There are different types of Mecate Pumps, depending on their use. Those involved in irrigation projects have plungers with larger diameters to increase their capacity. Others pull water into elevated containers, Some are powered by animals, wind energy, electricity, solar power, etc.

Installation is easy. The pumps require minimal maintenance, repairs are simple, and replacement parts can be found or built locally. They require little effort to use. Even children can get the water.

A Few Drops of Chlorine

Another solution used by Action Against Hunger in many of its projects is to treat water with chlorine. Chlorination can be achieved directly in the water systems themselves, or families can chlorinate water in their homes. Chlorine is a disinfectant that kills the majority of pathogens in water, reducing and often eliminating the risk of transmitting diseases.

Many products that contain chlorine can be transported easily and are inexpensive. A family can clean all the water it needs for a year at a cost of only 20 euros. Also, a residual dose of chlorine can be left in water to act as additional protection against contamination over time. For residential chlorination, the key is educating families about what to do. Normally, women perform the chore, because they are typically the health guardians in families and in charge of obtaining water.

Here's an example of how Action Against Hunger uses chlorination in its projects. In Mavinga, Angola, safe access to roads was dangerous due to the presence of mines.

Local communities would drink water from a river that was contaminated. Action Against Hunger developed a program that enabled 80,000 people to obtain safe water easily despite access problems. Our team noticed that women and children who were responsible for getting water from the river would use only certain roads to go back and forth. At the river, Action Against Hunger stationed individuals who were responsible for chlorinating the buckets or containers carried by the women and children. The amount of chlorine would depend on the size of the container and the amount of water in each container. These teams would also note the quantities of water treated. In the communities, water testing further ensured that everybody was visiting the chlorination stops.

How is Water Treated?

• A solution containing 1% chlorine is prepared in what is known as "stock solution."
• The "bucket test" allows the team to know the concentration of stock solution needed. Different doses are put into buckets of water and the residual chlorine is measured. The bucket that has the desired residual dose (in emergencies it can be up to 0.4mg/l) shows the concentration needed.
• If the team must chlorinate a container of water, the optimal dose will be determined from the bucket test results, and that concentration is added to the container. In residential chlorination projects, the dose is typically just a few drops added to buckets or containers. After stirring and waiting for half an hour or so, the chlorine should have had enough time to purify the water.
• The container must then be covered with a lid and the chlorine must be placed out of the reach of children.

A Few Rays of Sun

In Honduras, Action Against Hunger and the foundation SODIS www.fundacionsodis.org educate communities about treating water using the Sodis Method. This method allows the disinfection of water using ultraviolet sun rays, which kill bacteria and pathogens in the water and make it safe for human consumption. It's an inexpensive and easy system that works in places where solar radiation is important, as in Choluteca region in Honduras.

How is the SODIS Method Applied?

• It's easy. A transparent plastic bottle of water is left exposed to direct radiation from the sun (for example on the roof of a house) for a predetermined period of time.
• The bottle must be kept clean, and care must be taken so that the water remains contaminant-free after disinfection.

Starting from Traditional Know-How

At Action Against Hunger, we seek to understand and take advantage of local knowledge. In some volcanic areas in the Afar region of Ethiopia, for example, water is scarce and all possible sources are utilized. The Afar build adobe brick chimneys over craters that emit water vapor. When vapor touches the walls it condenses into water, which is captured in special mud containers. Action Against Hunger studied this system and improved it with a material that better collects the

The Sahel desert, one of the driest areas on the planet, gets very little rain. Thedesert's habitants build large basins (with a capacity of up to 100,000 cubic meters) to gather rainwater. These basins are water proofed with clay so that water won't seep through. Action Against Hunger has added a silting system to better filter the water that reaches the basins.

Action Against Hunger has also built systems that gather rainwater in northern Uganda and in the Philippines, at schools and hospitals to take advantage of the surface of their roofs.

And...Of Course, Politics Even something as simple as water can be turned into a political weapon. Conflicts, the exclusion of communities and the lack of desire to solve problems are the main reasons thousands of people do not have access to basic needs. For example, in Palestine, the exploration to find water supply requires permission from Israeli authorities. Action Against Hunger advocates the building of reservoirs that allow storage of rainwater. We also promote simple water treatment systems for recyclying water for irrigation projects. However, rainwater is not abundant, and these systems won't provide all the necessities of the population.

At Action Against Hunger we believe that access to clean water is not only essential but also a fundamental right, and therefore all countries have a duty to make that right known and to facilitate appropriate access.

It's in our Hands

In summary, technology won't solve the problems of 852 million people who face hunger around the world. Curro Gonzalez, responsible for water and water treatment at Action Against Hunger-Madrid, with 10 years' experience in this area, is convinced that: "the key is implementation of simple solutions and preparing communities to be self-sufficient. All of this is attainable; it depends on everybody's wish to make a better world for everyone, on solidarity, and above all, on understanding the nature of these problems and on providing solutions."

Water Statistics

• Some 1.5 million children die annually in Third World countries, due to diarrhea caused primarily by poor quality of water, poor water treatment and lack of hygiene.
• The cases of diarrhea that kill children daily would be greatly reduced through improved water, water treatment and hygiene. We could achieve between a reduction of 6% to 25% in mortality if water supplies are improved; between 35% and 39% by treating domestic water where it is consumed; by 32% with improved water treatment; and up to 45% if hygiene habits are improved, such as simple hand-washing.
• To satisfy our basic needs, we need between 20 and 50 liters of treated water a day. Many people have less than 5 liters a day, 30 times less than a European citizen utilizes.