Water

May 23, 2007 9:25 PM

Conditions for Iraqi children affected by violence and displacement have reached a critical point, according to UNICEF (PDF). One of the worst problems is the lack of clean water: only an estimated 30 per cent have access to safe water that isn't contaminated.
posted by homunculus (11 comments total)

Thanks for posting this, homunculus. Here's the WATERLOO Challenge, a competition set up for solutions to this very problem.

This year, the theme for WATERLOO Challenge 2008 is Providing Water and Sanitation in Disaster Situation. In the event of a catastrophe such as an earthquake, flood, or tsunami, the lack of clean drinking water is a major issue facing survivors. Without a source of clean water, water borne diseases may claim more lives.

The general response to this type of situation would be to airlift large amounts of bottled water into the affected areas. However, in such situations, transportation infrastructure may be damaged, and costly delays in providing water may occur. Moreover, a mountain of plastic bottles is left behind.
posted by infini at 9:33 PM on May 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

I saw a new device called the LifeStraw on Digg a few weeks back- cheap and longlasting. Maybe something like that could be helpful. Sadly, water sanitation was a problem in Iraq even before the invasion. One of the more problematic effects of the sanctions was the ban on chlorine as a potential dual use item.
posted by gsteff at 10:14 PM on May 23, 2007

No More Victims
posted by homunculus at 11:34 PM on May 23, 2007

If these kids grow up, they're going to love America so much!
posted by stammer at 2:06 AM on May 24, 2007

You forgot to emphasize the "if" in your comment stammer.
posted by chunking express at 6:25 AM on May 24, 2007

I was listening to a dude talking about this on the radio yesterday; some kind of child psychologist or something. He is convinced that this generation of kids growing up in the new Free Iraq is going to include a very high proportion of violent psychopaths. This will guarantee decades of revenue for the War on Terror industry! Win!
posted by nowonmai at 6:55 AM on May 24, 2007

Yet still we allow BushCo to run the world.

When are we going to wake up? I believe we need to step up our resistence some. Peaceful protest is not going to have an impact on Bush or his supporters, they laugh at us on the way to the bank and church.
posted by HuronBob at 7:10 AM on May 24, 2007

no, i still believe in ahimsa. the only thing missing is a balancing voice - like gandhi's was to hitler during the last war. where is the iraqi voice of peace? or middle eastern one?

the chi is unbalanced in the world until peaceful non cooperation and non violence are again spoken out aloud.
posted by infini at 7:20 AM on May 24, 2007

Well they're better off without Saddam. *cries*
posted by BaxterG4 at 9:21 AM on May 24, 2007

Yeah, Bush said so!
posted by homunculus at 7:28 PM on May 24, 2007

But who knew Freedom would taste like Faeces?
posted by homunculus at 12:26 AM on May 25, 2007