For Immediate Release
September 18, 2008
Contact: Lisa Swann
202 518-0044, Ext. 14
swann@earthday.net
Communities in Developing World to Receive
Much-Needed Water Testing Kits
Earth Day Network Honors World Water Monitoring Day
Washington, DC – To help mark World Water Monitoring Day on September 18th, Earth Day Network will be distributing 100 water monitoring kits to communities in developing countries such as, Togo, Peru, Brazil, Morocco, Nigeria, India, the Philippines and Burkina Faso. Although World Water Monitoring Day is a landmark celebration, Earth Day Network is committed to protecting the world’s water year-round. The organization maintains a website, the Global Water Network, www.globalwaternetwork.org, which provides a yearlong calendar of events for citizens to get involved in. The website also features an opportunity for users to Adopt-a-Water Project and donations go directly to needed water and sanitation projects in developing countries.
The water monitoring kits have been supplied by the World Environment Federation.
Each year on World Water Monitoring Day, communities across the globe use “citizen scientists” to check their water for temperature, acidity/pH, clarity (turbidity), and dissolved oxygen levels. The results of these tests, often conducted by primary- and secondary-school students, are posted on the World Water Monitoring Day web site for other communities to see.
The kits include an instruction booklet, a sample collection jar, pH test-tube, vials, temperature strips, pH reagent tablets and Dissolved Oxygen reagent tablets, a color chart for analyzing the results, a pencil, and a materials-safety data sheet. It takes five to ten people to conduct the tests, though more than ten often get involved.
“Many communities in developing countries do not have a safe or clean source of drinking water,” said Caitlin Werrell, International Director at Earth Day Network. “It is important to test water to ensure that the supply is safe or to determine what needs to be done.”
In addition, World Water Monitoring day marks the beginning of an ongoing effort by Earth Day Network to help green schools internationally. The first step to an international green school is ensuring access to water and sanitation. The Global Water Network’s most recent addition to the Adopt-a-Water Project – is Water for Schools in Burkina Faso. Donations to this project will support efforts of The BARKA Foundation to build wells, latrines and a small-scale irrigation system to provide locally-grown meals to two schools in the Fada-N’gourma region of Burkina Faso. The projects on the Global Water Network help to spread the word about world water issues beyond September 18th so the next generation’s water is drinkable & pure.
About Earth Day Network
Earth Day Network, www.earthday.net, seeks to grow and diversify the environmental movement worldwide, and to mobilize it as the most effective vehicle for promoting a healthy, sustainable planet. It pursues these goals through education, politics, and consumer activism. Earth Day Network has a global reach with a network of more than 17,000 partners and organizations in 174 countries. More than 1 billion people participate in Earth Day activities, making it the largest secular civic event in the world.
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