Power of Water
It’s so easy. We turn on a tap and liquid life-force pours from it. We drink it, wash in it, water our plants with it and put it to work in infinite other ways.
We are lucky in the global north to take it entirely for granted. But, increasingly in other parts of the world, it is a rare and precious resource that not everyone has access to.
Except that there are people who dedicate their lives to try and re-balance this inequity.
This week’s Brave New Girl podcast guest is Fiona Jeffery, who founded Just a Drop in 1998 after learning that a child died every 17 seconds because of dirty water & that just £1 could provide a child with clean water for 10 years.
She sits on the UN World Committee for Tourism Ethics & in 2012 was awarded an OBE for her services to the travel & tourism industry.
Just a Drop provides communities across Asia, Africa and Latin America with access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.
By providing communities access to mans most basic need other than the air to breath, it is an enormous leg up and from it communities can start to flourish.
DROP BY DROP
It’s the longer term impact of Just a Drop’s work that’s so rewarding to see.
What is extraordinary to learn is how transformational giving people access to safe water is to peoples lives.
No longer are women and children spending hours walking to collect water that’s dirty and makes them ill.
They are healthier because they have access to water close to their homes which gives them more time to do income generating activity.
By working they generate an income and can send their children to school. It's such an enabler that it helps them build their lives out of drudgery and gives them hope.
Life without water is an endless struggle, life with water means that anything becomes possible and Just a Drop have helped to see the changes people can make to their lives and those of their children.
Communities, wherever they are, want the same as we do- for their families to be safe, healthy and to get a good education. Water helps support all of this and more.
They impact SDG6 Access to safe water and sanitation, but through their work they impact 11 other Sustainable Development Goals including No hunger, no poverty, better education, health and well being, gender equality, income generation and climate action to mention a few.
Thanks so much Fiona for your work in ethical tourism, for making a difference in people’s lives with clean water and sanitation, and for your commitment to working towards the end of the water crisis in our lifetime. Also for showing us that drop by drop we can get back in step with natural living systems so that there is a fairer balance for all people across the planet.
You can find out more about Fiona’s work on https://www.justadrop.org/
And follow her on Linkedin @FionaJefferyOBE
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