For those with a THIRST for knowledge - Part III

"Now we're cookin' with sauce!"

I adopted this phrase from one of my foreign friends who had a slight mishap in his translation of the english idiom, one day. It was funny because, at that moment, we had just switched our failed camp barbecue from charcoal over to a propane grill. We we literally cooking with gas!

Missed it by that much.

BUT! CCW was totally cooking with sauce today! I had my meeting today with the president of the Rotary Club here in Bloomington and we were able to work out some networking as we move forward in getting the word out for my fundraiser.

Also! A representative from The Water Project started an email conversation with me to learn more about my project and we have a scheduled call this upcoming Tuesday!

----------------------

So I wanted to present some final thoughts on the water crisis. This is the last part to my background series and I figured this could be my wrapping-it-all-up, last 10 minutes of The Sting, everything comes together, Harry kills Voldemort, summation-type post.

All in all, there are MANY reasons why Africa doesn't have clean water! (see Part I)

Despite being a simple human necessity, clean water access is a social/political/economic AND ecological issue. Everything from traditional farming habits and cultural norms, to industry standards and the exploitation of natural resources; from lack of sanitation utility and hygiene to community education, water justice requires a comprehensive agenda!

When there is not enough food to go around without farmers replanting every year, the land becomes desertified from lack of rest and rejuvenating processes. This then ruins any future crops and the dry soil erodes into the freshwater source and makes it too silty to drink safely. There needs to be a political/aid system set in place that remedies these cascades before they completely destroy the land and any chances of clean water and sustainable living,

Do I know the answers? No. Do I want to help find them? Yes, and installing a pump and reservoir so that a community can actually access clean ground water is a good start in my eyes.

Peace, Water, and Climbing,

Chris