GEORGE: Aha. Aha. Could it be because you don’t want him to know that you have a friend who pees in the shower, is that it?!

ELAINE: No, that’s not it!

GEORGE: Oh, I think it is! I think that's exactly what it is!

ELAINE: Why couldn't you just wait?

GEORGE: I was there! I saw a drain!

ELAINE: Since when is a drain a toilet?!

GEORGE: It's all pipes! What's the difference?!

ELAINE: Different pipes go to different places! You're gonna mix 'em up!

GEORGE: I'll call a plumber right now! JERRY: Alright, can we just drop all the pee-pipe stuff here?

Credit for this excerpt: Transcribed by Brian Dickson on Dec. 10, 2002.?Originally posted on The News Guys(Mike's) site http://www.geocities.com/tnguym

---

Bathroom with toilet is the kind of shower that George Costanza would love. Demotech, a Netherlands organization, promotes unique solutions to improve lives. They propose a family unit bathroom that can accommodate bathing and sanitation.

But wait—what’s so unique about that? I have two of those “units”! You probably have at least one as well. Many people in developing countries don’t have indoor plumbing. They walk to fetch water and use an outhouse or maybe even the great outdoors to relieve themselves. The family unit that Demotech proposes is basically a closet-size area where you an throw a bucket of water over your head but you can also remove the drain screen and pee or poop down the same pipe used for the bathing water. George Costanza would be welcome here!

Like

Unlike

WFP uses local resources to solve water, sanitation, and hygiene issues. They work in Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Malawi, and West Bengal, India. A lot of their donations come from water-related industry groups such as the American Water Works Association, National Association of Water Companies, and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies. They also get many generous donations from people like you.

They fund projects only in communities that are committed to contributing in-kind labor and funding. For a project to be successful, the community must help plan, implement, and maintain the water and sanitation system. Ongoing maintenance and education is important. That’s why I like WTP — it puts into place processes that ensure continued success.

Another feature of WTP projects is that women must be involved in the project. That’s because women in developing countries are usually the ones who have the burden of finding and carrying water for their families.

They have a terrific website. Check it out.

Global Run is a community of students and teachers engaged in international service learning in support of the United Nations’ Millennium Development goals. These globally aware kids are sixth graders. They are working to fight poverty and lack of clean water. They support a number of projects around the world by raising money.

Watch this video then visit the Global Run Project website.

Kids can find out about being a Global Ambassador while Teachers can visit the “Teacher’s Room” to see how to incorporate global awareness into their curriculum.

Be the change!

And a few things that you probably don’t want to know! This 13-minute video produced by WaterAid and narrated by Adam Hart-Davis is as entertaining as it is educational.

Blue Planet Run applauds a genius idea from teacher, Tina Adwar. She models great behavior for her students while saving lives!

Tina says:

“I am an Earth Science teacher at Newfield High School in Selden, NY. My students are required to have pencils for lab work, graphing etc. I used to be frustrated at the number of students who did not have a pencil on any given day.”

“For the past two years, I have turned a negative into a positive.”

“Students who forget their pencils buy one from me for 10 cents. When we reach $15, I match the money and we buy bricks to line a well through Blue Planet Run Foundation. So far this year we have made two $30 donations. Last year we made three. Students understand where the money is going because I show them the videos on your website. It’s been a great learning experience for the students to realize the need for water in other places in the world.”

You too can use your genius to raise money to bring clean water to developing countries.

Larry Edelson’s article “A Crisis Beyond Comprehension” provides an overview on the world water crisis. Here’s the first section:

“No, I’m not talking about the global financial crisis. Nor am I talking about the AIG disaster … Citibank’s failure … the collapse of GM or Ford. I’m not even referring to the Dow’s recent plunge to below 7,000.”

“Don’t get me wrong: I am not minimizing the financial crisis that’s affecting people all over the world.”

“I just don’t want anyone to forget about a crisis that’s killing 12 million people per year, including 10,000 children per day.”

“I’m talking about the worst crisis of all time, the intense and critical shortage of water … pure fresh water. What I call “blue gold” — a term I coined back in 2004 to describe one of the most precious natural resources of all and to help motivate others to take notice of the growing crisis.”

“Festering for years, sadly, the world’s water crisis is now getting worse by the day. And the global financial and credit crisis is merely one reason why.”

“Another is the ongoing modernization of major parts of the world, which continues despite the world’s financial meltdown. This is increasing demand for water, while at the same time polluting it.”

“Yet another is major droughts around the world, including in our own back yard, where 60 percent of the U.S. is officially experiencing a drought. In fact, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency just last weekend due to the state’s now three-year running water crisis, its worst on record.”

“Neither Wall Street nor Washington is doing much about the water crisis. Even the recent infrastructure spending bill has largely ignored it … allocating only $6 billion over the next 20 years to water projects.”

“And the rest of the world isn’t doing much either. All told, I count less than $80 billion in spending going toward saving the lives of those who are dying from lack of water.”

Continue reading this excellent article

---

This excerpt was republished from Monday and Markets under the agreement of providing attribution to the author (Larry Edelson) and this paragraph:

“This investment news is brought to you by Money and Markets. Money and Markets is a free daily investment newsletter from Martin D. Weiss and Weiss Research analysts offering the latest investing news and financial insights for the stock market, including tips and advice on investing in gold, energy and oil. Dr. Weiss is a leader in the fields of investing, interest rates, financial safety and economic forecasting. To view archives or subscribe, visit http://www.moneyandmarkets.com.”

A few years ago I travelled to Rwanda for an encounter with mountain gorillas. The drill is the same for all tourists. You stay in the Gorilla’s Nest Hotel or similar modest lodging, your designated escort picks you up in the morning and drives you to the national park, and you get assigned to a group of 8 tourists. Your group walks with a park guide and an armed escort to a specific troupe of gorillas. They make a big deal out of having to find the gorillas, but in reality they track the troupes pretty well, so chances are you will get a close encounter with gorillas. It’s awesome!

This adventure is supposed to protect the gorillas from poaching and contribute to the economy of the country. At $350 per person per encounter, gorillas bring in quite a lot of money. I think it’s helping the gorillas, but I’m not so sure about the people.

The road from the hotel to the park is extremely rough, sort of like the rock bed of a river, only dry. The countryside along the way is extremely lush, with rich volcanic soil that’s planted with a variety of produce. It seemed like paradise to me until I noticed that the fields are tilled by women using hand implements. That’s right, no John Deere tractors here. I didn’t even see oxen or horses. Women who aren’t tilling can be seen walking on the side of the road, barefoot, carrying large loads of potatoes and other produce on their heads to market, or carrying large vessels to fetch water. No running water here.

The men, by the way, all seemed to have shoes on and they weren’t doing any obvious hard labor like the women.

The children are what really tore at my heart. Lots of children standing by the side of the road, staring at our jeep. Some with open hands, but most just looking. So many had sores on their skin and unclear eyes indicative of disease. “What about schooling? Shouldn’t these children be in school?” I asked our driver. He said yes, there was schooling for children, but only for the clever ones.

Clever? Aren’t all children clever? Shouldn’t all children be given a chance at education?

---

Orphans of Rwanda says that more than 400,000 children are out of school.

UNICEF says:

• Of the children who enroll in school, half do not complete the primary cycle (through 6th grade).
• Some 100,000 orphans live in child-headed households.
• Close to half of all children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition.
• More than 80 per cent of all diseases that affect children are water-borne.

More 15,000 species of nematodes are parasitic. Nematoda, from Ancient Greek, means “thread-like ones.” I suppose a small, thin worm is like a thread. Unfortunately, the human parasitic species — like ascarsis shown in the photo — is not as innocuous as a thread. Intestinal nematode infections account for almost half of the malnutrition in the world.

Adult female worms can grow to be almost a foot in length. Imagine a bundle of these things in your intestines eating the nourishment you supply. They are going to grow, and you won’t. It’s rare that you would ever get this disease in the USA. But children in tropical an subtropical areas are at great risk if they drink unclean water, have inadequate sanitation, or poor hygiene.

Over a billion people are walking around with these worms. You can make a difference by donating to Blue Planet Run Foundation. Clean water is needed for good hygience.

Science Daily recently published an article that discusses “mining” the air for water. Here’s a summary of the process, which was invented by Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB:

“… hygroscopic brine – saline solution which absorbs moisture – runs down a tower-shaped unit and absorbs water from the air. It is then sucked into a tank a few meters off the ground in which a vacuum prevails. Energy from solar collectors heats up the brine, which is diluted by the water it has absorbed”

This sounds too expensive and equipment-intensive to be useful for people like Millicent. But who knows?

(Thanks to Greg Laden for suggesting this story.)

In a small village in Kenya, a woman—and other villagers like her—loads her bike with water containers and travels 6 kilometers to the nearest water hole. She, along with the local cattle, uses this as her main water source. Watch this video. Could you make as many trips as she does in a day? Video from NTV, Kenya.