Water is one of, if not the most basic and important of the needs of life. Yet, in many parts of Africa, communities are at a limited supply and do not always have the water that they desperately need to survive.
Furthermore, the water that they do have access to is often contaminated and unsanitary. Needless to say, the water is beyond unfit to drink and does not help to satiate the basic need these African communities have, as we all do.
The Problem
Many of the communities in Africa facing this terrifying water shortage have members of the tribe that spend hours each day walking to wells that are sometimes miles from their home to get water. This time could be much better used on other activities, and many children fall behind in school simply because they don’t have time to attend.
In the more underdeveloped parts of Africa, a good majority of the water supply is infected with bacteria and pathogens. These bacteria have the ability to make entire communities intensely ill. It is often difficult to diagnose illnesses related to poor and diseased water until the symptoms are more than apparent and it is too late.
The more feeble members of the community like the children and the elderly are extremely susceptible and are put at special risk. Diarrhea, abdominal pain and other health issues run rampant when bacteria-filled water infects a community.
Additionally, water supplies that are specifically allocated for agricultural projects (to grow the food they eat) are often inadequate or mismanaged, which means that crops do not grow to their full potential, adding hunger and economic problems to the mix.
Gary Kaplan and the Kaplan Foundation Have a Solution
The founder of the Kaplan Foundation, Gary Kaplan, visited Zambia recently. Zambia is a landlocked state in the central portion of the southern regions of Africa, surrounded by several states and nowhere near one of the major oceans or bodies of water that surround the continent. Gary was horrified by the sickness that plagued many children and adults he met in some of the communities of Zambia that he visited. All of the sicknesses was due to insufficient and unsanitary water supplies.
Gary Kaplan being the kind of man that Gary Kaplan is decided to do something about it.
In one community, he saw hundreds of people clustered around a single well desperately trying to collect small amounts of unhealthy water.
Water 4 Africa
Gary Kaplan founded the organization Water 4 Africa to address these issues. One of the organization’s objectives is to simply fix existing wells that are broken due to lack of maintenance. This, alone, should help enormously.
In many areas of Africa, there is plenty of water beneath the ground, but communities lack the technology to reach it. Water 4 Africa will remedy that by drilling new wells and also use state-of-the-art purification technology to clean it.
Water 4 Africa is also involved in efforts to recycle African water. Reusing wastewater dramatically increases the water supply, but it has to be properly cleaned first, and Water 4 Life is involved with building the facilities to do this.
The organization sponsors educational initiatives meant to teach Africans good practices for preventing waste when using water in agriculture. Additionally, the group is working to make water prices more affordable for ordinary people in Zambia and elsewhere.
Gary Kaplan believes strongly in giving back. His Water 4 Africa initiative puts his money where his mouth is and is making an enormous difference for the better.
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