Above Photo: Tap Project volunteer looking for participating restaurants.

We spent a couple of days walking around encouraging restaurants and coffeehouses to get involved. Four restaurants and two coffeehouses have agreed to participate. This is the first year of the Tap Project in our area. Restaurants are a great venue to reach a diverse group of people. The campaign might present the opportunity for someone in the United States to think about a young child in Zambia (or Bangladesh, India, Sudan… ) and their lack of water and/or sanitation. And, with the UNICEF Tap Project, we are giving people the chance to help alleviate the suffering of children worldwide.

If you want to engage your city in the Tap Project, visit the UNICEF Tap Project website at www.tapproject.org.

Be sure and check out the first three PSAs featured in the series on rainwater harvesting in India,  the LA Tap Project, and a water-conservation campaign in Denver.

This group of young humanitarians reminded me that even the smallest action can make a difference. Especially in a world where so many people lack food, clean water, and shelter. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF is an annual campaign to raise funds for projects around the world. UNICEF works on water and sanitation projects in over 90 countries.

It’s not to late for you to give either this holiday season. If you are interested in water issues, be sure and check out Universal GIVING. If you search with the keyword ‘water‘, you will find almost 300 different water projects looking for donations. Organizations represented on this site include Action Against Hunger, Green Empowerment, The Hope Alliance, International Medical Corps, and H20 Africa Foundation, to name a few.

How would you like to give a few of these gifts this holiday season?

Water A Field
Provide a clean water system for a village
Purchase water filtration units for five families
Provide clean water and sanitation for an elementary school

As an added bonus, here is another one of Sukle’s clever ways to teach people to conserve water.

Another about the shower.

And another about, ummm, drinking water.

Because I love PSAs about water so much, I am going to feature them on Water for the Ages in a PSA-a-thon Series. Be sure and check out the first in the series: a PSA on rainwater harvesting made for television in India.

The second in the series, today’s PSA, is a little out-of-date but neat nonetheless. It was created for the Tap Project, an outreach effort each year from March 16 to March 22, to raise money for UNICEF’s water programs. Enjoy.

A child cries as a woman fills pans of water from a public water hose on open ground in Najaf, Iraq, in 2006. (Alla al-Marjani/Associated Press)

Recent History of Water in Iraq

In the recent past, Iraq had over 140 drinking water and treatment facilities in operation. Air attacks, in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War destroyed many of these water treatment plants. At the same time, UN imposed sanctions disallowed trade between Iraq and other countries. This made import of needed chemicals and supplies for upkeep of the water treatment facilities difficult.

By 2003, Iraq’s 140 major water treatment facilities were operating at about 35 percent of their design capacity. In March 2003, the US government launched a direct-attack on Iraq. This continued war, for over five-years now, has rendered useless the already deteriorating water infrastructure systems across the country.

Years of political upheaval, sanctions against Iraq, consistent mortar attacks, and unstable-transitional governing bodies have made maintenance of the water treatment systems almost impossible.

“Over 600 workers from the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works have been killed attempting to repair these networks since 2005″

- UNICEF

Unsafe water is also taking its toll. Iraq saw the worst outbreak of Cholera in recorded history in 2007.

A man in a village in southern Iraq demonstrates how Bechtel left his village without access to clean water. Photo courtesy the BanglaPraxis blog.

While some measures are being taken to ensure water availability in Iraq…

UNICEF provides water on tanker trucks and distributes home-hygiene kits to civilians.
UNESCO has assessed water resources available in Iraq and evaluated possible management plans.
USAID has refurbished 10 water treatment plants and installed 70 small water treatment systems in rural communities.
The transitional Iraqi Government has been developing water policy.
The Iraq Water Project (Veterans for Peace in conjunction with LIFE) has sent small, sterilized water units for hospitals and schools and has been working to rebuild six water treatment plants in Iraq.

…really, though, these actions are not yet enough.

For it is true, if water conditions are to improve in this country, then current upheaval, war, and fighting in Iraq must come to an end.

“We have photos of the units we sent to several hospitals, including the city of Hit where there has been a recent outbreak of cholera, and we got a dandy little video of our Sterilight in action at al Mansour children’s hospital in Baghdad.” – The Iraq Water Project

‘A mother in Delhi, India, helps her son drink from a public tanker on World Water Day 2007′, photo on BBC News.

World Water Day 2008

Events happening across the globe draw international attention to a lack of available and clean drinking water supplies on World Water Day, whether celebrating March 20th (as so noted in this post on Water Wired) or on the typical March 22nd.

According to the United Nations, this year’s World Water Day theme will emphasize ‘Sanitation’ to coincide with the designated International Year of Sanitation.

Confusion about the date of the event this year (to account for a religious holiday on the weekend) certainly has not hindered many from observing the need to focus on global water issues.

March 20th Events (to name a few)

Global Water Challengeand Ashoka’s Changemakers invite people to submit entries for the competition to solve the global water crisis: “Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis“. One million dollars in funding is available to help implement these projects, and entries are due by March 26, 2008.

Shekhar Kapur launches a blog on Changemakers.net inspired by his latest film, ‘Paani’ (Water), which will examine the daily struggle for water in the slums of Mumbai.

The Our World – Our Water group on Flickr is launched to encourage those from around the world to share photos and stories about water.

March 22nd Events (to name a few)

WaterPartners Village — a virtual exploration of the water crisis – will launch across social networking sites like Second Life on World Water Day. A virtual concert, with proceeds to support global water organizations, will start at 5:00 pm (PDT) on March 22, 2008 at the WaterPartners Village stage.

Worldwaterday.net is organizing events across the United States that observe World Water Day including organized walks to raise money for the global water crisis.

Gramalaya in association with WaterPartners International and WaterAid – UK is organising World Water Day 2008 in Tamil Nadu, India. The event will be attended by more than 20,000 women from 430 villages and 186 slums in Tiruchi City will be participating. The event will be telecast at Suryan FM 93.5.

WorldWaterDay.org features events happening across the globe and on the Internet.

The Film Connection supports World Water Day by featuring several films about water for viewing and discussion about global water issues. ‘With this film program, we invite you to take a closer look at how individuals experience and utilize this diminishing resource.’

The above poster is part of an outreach campaign by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

The second annual Tap Project ad blitz will soon arrive in papers and magazines of over twelve US cities including New York City, Boston Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Portland, OR, Richmond, VA, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and several cities in South Carolina, as stated in the New York Times today. Several notable advertising agencies will be producing the outreach material pro bono (for free).

Posters, ads, lapel pins, etc. will highlight fund-raising to begin Sunday, March 16th through Saturday, March 22th. Participating restaurants will invite customers to donate a minimum of a dollar for tap water normally free.

As the Tap Project web-site states, “For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days” through UNICEF project implementation. The project is set to coincide with World Water Day on March 22, 2008, an annual event promoted by the UN to promote public awareness of global water issues.

Photo courtesy of the New York Times and the Tap Project. (A poster for the Tap Project that will appear in Chicago, created by Energy BBDO.)