Running for water

There have been many advocacies that have been helped by the running boom in the Philippines. But perhaps the biggest crisis afflicting mankind is only about to be addressed in the country now.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Achievement Fund states that over 1.1 billion people on the planet have no access to clean drinking water, and 15.73 million of those victims are in the Philippines. One of the MDG supported by the United Nations through NEDA is the accessibility of safe drinking water for the people of our country. Increasingly, having clean water remains a big challenge, particularly for provincial areas where old-fashioned deep wells are the prime source of drinking water.

Other water sources like rivers, streams, springs and even water pipes in urban areas may not be free from bacteria, viruses and other parasites, and may cause various illnesses such as diarrhea, worm infestations and other life-threatening diseases and become a long-term problem for local governments. Also safe water is scarce during natural disasters like floods. People isolated by rising water need drinking water for survival.

“This is really a critical issue that we would like to address,” said Erwin Po of Veepo Global Resources, distributor of LifeStraw, a breakthrough technology that will help alleviate this monstrous problem. “We would like to use the sport of running to bring awareness to this problem, and generate fund to help solve it.”

A series of runs tentatively titled “The Water Runs” and spearheaded from Veepo, will raise funds to promote clean, safe drinking water for the public. The runs, slated to begin in August, are targeted at key cities in Cebu, Davao, Naga, Pampanga and Metro Manila. Veepo is finalizing agreements with non-government organizations, which will benefit from the funds raised by the runs. Funds generated will be used by LifeStraw personal and family products at lowered rates to benefit indigent communities.

LifeStraw is a breakthrough Swiss technology, a self-contained filtration system that works with any water, no matter how dirty, and converts it into clean, fresh drinking water. The personal device itself looks like an enlarged train whistle and can clean a minimum of 700 liters of water. You just dip one end into any water source, and sip through the other end, and safely satisfy your thirst. In a demo video for LifeStraw, top officials of the mother company used the family version of the device – which has a collection cup at one end, to show how helpful it can be in dire situations like remote communities in Kenya. They showed a cow defecating, put the dung and accompanying mud into the collecting cup, and watched as it was converted into crystal clear water, which they then drank. The family unit can filter at least 20,000 liters of water, with a flow rate of 15 liters per hour, and removes 99.99 percent of waterborne parasites, viruses and bacteria. LifeStraw was hailed by Time magazine as the Best Invention of 2005, and has won numerous international awards.

“It’s ironic that, in situations like Ondoy, people suffered and died of thirst even though they were surrounded by water,” Po continues.

“Even if you were stranded at sea, you would dehydrate even faster if you drank the salt water. Now, you won’t have those worries.”

The personal device costs a little over P 1,600, and can be taken anywhere. If you saw the film “127 Hours”, in it, adventurer Aron Ralston was pinned by a boulder in a secluded ridge for five days, and was forced to drink his own urine, rainwater and even mud simply to survive. Now, outdoorsmen may benefit from a very simple, easy to use technology, and won’t even have to carry around heavy containers of water, or personal stoves for boiling drinking water. With all the travel required for work, this writer has twice needed medical attention for drinking supposedly clean water.

“The Water Runs” will primarily be one kilometer for children, and 3-km, 5-km and 10-km runs for adults. A 21-kilometer edition will be held in the final run in Metro Manila scheduled for December. Registration fees and sponsorship moneys will be used to make bulk purchases of LifeStraw, which in turn shall be donated to beneficiaries of the various NGOs that are partnering with the organizers for this event.

Those who would like to know more about “The Water Runs” may contact Veepo Global Resources through [email protected].