(1888PressRelease)
March 06, 2007 - CHARLESTON, SC---In recent weeks Bolivia has experienced its worst flooding in 25 years. An estimated 350,000 people have been affected by the continuing rise of the Amazon River tributaries. Water Missions International (WMI), a Charleston-based nonprofit Christian engineering organization dedicated to providing sustainable water systems to developing countries and disaster areas, is teaming with Samaritan’s Purse to ship Living Water Treatment Systems (LWTS) to Bolivia’s hardest hit areas. Three LWTS systems were shipped Wednesday. Three more systems were shipped Friday.
One LWTS system provides a continuous supply of clean safe drinking water for communities of 3,000-5,000 people. WMI Co-Founder George Greene III, PE, Ph.D., along with Honduran Country Director, Hector Chacon, are traveling to Bolivia to install the systems.
Water supplies and sanitation conditions in the country have been severely compromised, which threatens to worsen the disaster. In all natural disasters, safe water and sanitation are the most urgent needs. A state of emergency has been declared by the Bolivian sagovernment. More than 14,000 families have been displaced and moved to refugee camps where unhealthy conditions from a lack of clean water and sanitation usually lead to severe intestinal infections, such as cholera and diarrhea.
The United Nations has described the floods as the country’s most devastating disaster ever and has issued an appeal for $9.2 million in aid, which has begun to arrive from Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, and the United States. El Nino weather patterns are believed to be the cause of the flooding.
Donations are needed immediately to fund these systems and shipment to Bolivia. For more information on how to help, please call Danya Jordan with WMI at (843)769-7395.
About WMI:
WMI is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit Christian engineering organization, providing appropriate, sustainable safe water solutions in some of the world’s poorest countries. WMI’s mission is to provide sustainable access to safe water and an opportunity to hear the “Living Water” message in developing countries and disaster areas. WMI provides assistance without regard to political or religious association, age, or ethnicity. To date, WMI has installed a total of 338 water systems world-wide, making safe water available to more than a half a million people.
Visit us at www.watermissions.org.
If you would like more information about Water Missions International, or to donate money to the Bolivia Flood Disaster Relief Project
please call Danya Jordan
at (843)769-7395 x 210
or email Danya at djordan ( @ ) watermissions dot org
