Participants find unique ways to tell their unique story

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Water is such an important aspect of humanity, affecting our economies, health and environment. Everyone has a connection to water. What makes submissions to the Blue Roots Project interesting is how people choose to contribute and share their stories and experiences with water.

This week brought a variety of stories and types of submissions—exactly the kind of variety we hoped for in this project. As the project progresses we’re excited to see the creativity of participants as they find ways to tell their stories that suit their talents and abilities.

While we do receive many submissions directly through our website, many others opt to share a story, photo or a video on social media. We don’t want to leave anyone out, so our weekly round up will also include submissions through social media.

So without further delay, here are a few of our favorites from the past week.

An artist inspired by water

Abstract painting by Ukrainian artist Olha Trach

Ukrainian artist Olha Trach connected with us via social media and sent us some information about her work through the website. Above is an abstract painting of hers that is part of her Fluid 0000 Project. Her project is inspired by the fluidity of both human consciousness and nature and uses art to drive a powerful message of caring for the environment. She writes:

Maybe, just maybe through medium of art we might be brought closer to harmonious existence with the planet, each other, own self. For another veil of ignorance to fall.

Water + Action in Uganda, East Africa

Theres Iwanchuk is living in the U.S. but is connected to the Starlight Family in Uganda through an old friend. She shared a video through the website about an ongoing project to improve access to clean water for an orphanage in the District of Kiboga. Here’s an excerpt from her story (the full version can be found here):

A recent generous donation to Starlight Family provided an 8000 liter metal water tank to collect rain water. However, the entire community relies on a local spring water source which urgently needs renovating as its quality is not safe to drink anymore. Its stagnant water is contaminated with dangerous bacteria and parasites, and gets even worse during the annual drought season. It is the breeding place for mosquitoes and frogs. Last year a 6-year old girl from the Starlight Junior School died of Typhus fever and severe abdominal cramps because she drank water that hadn’t been boiled.

Here’s the video Theres shared with the Blue Roots Project.

A Jordanian perspective of the value of water

 

Open water swimming in the San Francisco Bay

 

Moments with Water

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Submissions for the Blue Roots Project are beginning to trickle in, and we’re finding many of the top submissions from the past week associate water—in the ocean or swimming pools—with summer fun and activities. From water sports like surfing to the simple pleasure of someone sitting with their toes dipped in a pool, our participants so far are reminding all of us to appreciate the luxury of spending moments in water, as opposed to spending our days seeking clean water.

Here’s a roundup of the past week’s top submissions.

“My all-time favorite thing to do is go swimming!” From Auktumas Kamienas, U.S.

 

“This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can’t see how deep it is.” From Andzelika Zavackiene, Lithuania

 

“Water is power!” Another from Andzelika Zavackiene, Lithuania

And, this video from Juste of Denmark, who said “Summer vibes in action !!! BE supportive and Thankful for the opportunities you have 💦🤘🏼👭💖”

A new week has already begun, and we can’t wait to round up our top picks next week.

The roles of government and community in ensuring clean, safe water

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Each community government has an obligation to make sure clean, safe water comes into our homes. One of the best ways the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has gotten each community and its citizens involved is watersheds or drainage basins. According to the EPA, there are over 2,110 watersheds in the continental U.S. and another 150 on Alaska and Hawaii.

Here in Indianapolis, we have six different watershed groups that are made up of individuals, volunteers, foundations, local agencies, among other groups that ensure improved water quality and the environment surrounding the watershed, according to Citizens Energy Group.

These groups are an important part to communities’ water quality and use of watersheds. Each group has a different approach depending on their particular watershed source, but all are concerned about water conservation and quality. Watershed groups are a good start for future conservation and assuring that citizens as well as government are involved in water conservation.

This post was submitted by Jennifer Walters of Indianapolis, Indiana.

‘No Jobs on a Dead Planet’

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On a recent, leisurely canoe float with friends on the White River in Indianapolis, we came across this graffiti, reading: No Jobs on a Dead Planet. While I’m not necessarily a supporter of graffiti, especially when it spoils quasi-nature settings, the inscription arrested me, as it cut to the heart of an imbroglio we are often thwarted by: the idea that we humans, well over 7 billion of us, must make our livelihood without harming the environment on which we depend. This argument of livelihood, in fact, is often used to justify aspects of consumption and energy use that we know are damaging the environment and contributing to the climate crisis. Ultimately we have a choice: our “job” can either be about healing nature or it will be about surviving the extreme weather and other disruptions resulting from climate change.

–Jim Poyser, Earth Charter Indiana

An account of the California drought from a Midwest transplant
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Originally a Midwesterner, Jennifer Werkowski shares her perspective on a water issue where she currently lives — California.

“Moving from the Midwest to California was a real eye opener for how much we take water for granted. I am not used to having to buy water to drink for my home because the water taste like dirt.

“California has been suffering from a severe drought for a long time now, which has affected farmers and of course caused many fires throughout California this summer. I was surrounded by four fires happening at one time which makes for bad air quality.

“It’s still shocking and sad to see so much brown grass where a large mass of water used to be. People are encouraged everyday to reduce water by recycling water from the limited rain we get, planting certain types of water resistant plants and trees, adjust sprinklers, install drip irrigation and use mulch. Many are hopeful, with the grass finally turning green and lakes filling up from the long awaited rain, that the drought will soon be a thing of the past.”

With water, we take the good with the “not so good”

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Memories offer a mix of good and bad, and water-related memories are no different. Elizabeth Janssen shares the moments that stand out the most in her mind about water.

Water has good and “not so good” memories. Good memories of being at the lake with my family in the summer, as a child and adult. ‘Not so good,’ remembering when water filled our basement, and we lost lots of our treasures!

Conservation group canoes the length of the Maumee River

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Members of the Fort Wayne, Indiana-based conservation group Save the Maumee embarked on a nine-day, 141-mile trip down the entire length of the Maumee River. The group of 40 people began at the continental divide between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, canoed all the way to Lake Erie, and created a video of their experience enjoying what the Maumee and its banks had to offer.

This is LA!!

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Comic created by Sarah Janssen about the California drought.

Water system design in a nutshell

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Journal by Aistė Manfredini

After a full day devoted to the community water system assessment in La Montañita, Honduras, Global Brigades’ Water Engineering interns and staff spent three consecutive days working in a neighboring town called Casillas. Our job entailed designing a water system from the point of the water source up to the community’s homes.

Now, when I say design, I mean starting completely from scratch with nothing but a pen, notebook, hammer, wooden stakes, permanent markers, 60 meter measuring tape, and our very own legs for transportation. We were also lucky to have a Garmin GPS device to track each waypoint, which measured the elevation of every point marked. Call me naïve, but it’s thee most brilliant GPS device I have ever used.

We spent three days “walking throughout the community” as our Water Program Coordinator Armando Osorto, would say. But realistically, it was like trekking through a semi-tropical-pinewood forest with slopes so steep that it was almost impossible to stay grounded. Pine needles and small rocks covered the mountain’s terrain, so there wasn’t much friction. Thorn bushes were everywhere. Some were as thick as a tree branch and others so thin that it was hard to avoid getting caught by their prickly thorns. Needless to say, my pants got destroyed and my arms looked like a vicious cat had attacked them. But who knows, maybe I’m being a little overdramatic.

Global Brigades water engineering staff and Casillas’ water council walk along the community’s nearby river to take measurements for a potential water system. Photo by Aiste Manfredini

Water system design: Honduran style

On the first day, we met with two locals living in the community to help us lead the way to the nearest river. Global Brigades follows a sustainable development model, so it is required that several people from the community work with GB on the water project. The model consists of sustainable methods that show community members how to design and implement a water system, while educating them on pipeline malfunctions and repairs, without relying on others to solve their problems.

The GB water engineering staff knew ahead of time that there would be a sufficient amount of water in the community’s riverbank, so they had decided that the river would be the main water source for the community’s water system, or dam, that would distribute water through polymerizing vinyl chloride (PVC) and galvanized steel pipelines. The point of the river where we had started (the potential dam) is about 3.1 miles away from the community’s empty 20,000-gallon capacity water tank, which is where the main pipeline will end.

Why is the community’s existing water tank empty? The Honduran government paid for the tank about 15 years ago, but the plumbing connected with the tank eventually broke and no one in the community knew how to fix it. According to Global Brigades water engineering staff, it is almost unreasonable to fix.

Why? There are ten houses above the elevation of the water tank that do not have plumbing, while the other 60 houses below the elevation of the tank, do. To fix the problem, and to make water available in every household, pipelines must start from the dam in the river and all the way through the community’s two tanks where water will then redistribute through smaller pipelines into to each home.

The data collection process

My internship colleague, Max Hartmann, lead the way for the water engineering team (about 13 of us) and measured every 60 meters along the river with a measuring tape. Every 60 meters, a wooden stake was placed and marked with the point’s elevation and station number for future guidance.

My job was to record every station number and elevation in a notebook, which isn’t easy when you need to hike through massive rocks and steep hills along a semi-dry river. In total, we hiked 6,682 meters, or 4 miles, and marked over 100 waypoints from the dam to the tank for the potential water pipeline. According to Armando, it will take approximately 10 Water Brigades to build La Montañita’s water system.

But the measuring process was just the beginning.

On the second day, after we had collected each pipeline measurement, we had to plug in the measurement data on a sophisticated Excel spreadsheet that was specifically formulated for pipeline engineering. We would have been clueless on the task if it wasn’t for Marco Landa, GB water engineering director, who was patient to thoroughly explain each concept and formula to someone who doesn’t have an engineering background. He’s truly thee Excel wiz.

From our collected data, we projected that the water system in La Montañita will cost $20,000. This includes all materials needed to build the dam and water pipelines, i.e., PVC and galvanized steel. At the dam, about 90 percent of the water will be used for pipelines (consumer water) and the rest will flow into the river to preserve the river’s environment.

On the third day, we returned to the community and explained that the water committee must take care of all the legal work before Global Brigades can proceed to build the water system, i.e., dam and pipelines. Legal work consists of getting permission to build pipelines through privately owned property and going to the community’s municipality office in Talanga (about an hour drive from Casillas), to provide the municipality officials with the water system design, project plan, and signed consent from landowners.

Design of the potential water system in Casillas, a small rural town in Honduras.

This process takes between two to four months for the community to complete; thus, Global Brigades will not proceed with the project or bring in Water Brigades until all of the above is settled. However, it is estimated that La Montañita will have running water in each household by the spring of 2016!

  • Water system design is not an easy task to accomplish, especially in developing countries where advanced building tools are scarce.
  • It takes a strong leadership team, i.e., community water council, to make water system projects efficient and last for long periods of time.
  • Potable water is a resource taken for granted by many Western and Third World cultures.
  • Development takes time and effort; timelines are unpromising.
  • One cannot empower another unless they want to change themselves.

Religious leader takes action on water quality

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In the Christian Church, the rite of baptism is a symbol of a new life and the first step at the start of a new journey. When teens and adults join Benton Mennonite Church, Pastor Douglas Kaufman prefers to hold a service and the baptismal ceremony outside, along the Elkhart River, located near the Mennonite church. But then he learned the river has so much manure in it, the Health Department recommends no full body contact with the river.

So for the past 12 years, the church has been involved in Hoosier Riverwatch to monitor the quality of the river water, raise awareness about issues of water quality and host river cleanups. As a pastor, Douglas said the issue of water quality in his community has prompted him to rediscover the importance of rivers in the Bible and water as a symbol in Christianity.

Listen to his story below.