Water for Humans Expands Board of Directors

Water for Humans had a Board of Directors Meeting on Thursday, March 24, 2011. Present were the two board members, Rick McKenney and Stan Brown, and the Seattle University law students, Misha Sandusky and Joseph Helt, who are helping us with our IRS 1023 application.

At the Board Meeting, we adopted a Conflict of Interest Policy which includes an annual statement to be signed by each board member. We also expanded the Board of Directors to include our Advisory Board. The following are now members of the Water for Humans Board of Directors:

2 Year Term -

• April Atwood, PhD

• Susan Bolton, PhD,PE

• Brian Setzler, MBA, CPA

• Tressie Wood, MS, PE

1 Year Term -

• Stan Brown, MBA

• James Fox, PhD

• Rick McKenney, MBA
  

• Hector Saez, PhD

The rest of the meeting was spent on the IRS 1023 application. We are on track to submit the application next month. Joseph and Misha, who will graduate in May, have been a tremendous help guiding us through the process.

What Can I Do to Bring Safe Drinking Water to Others?

The worldwide water crisis seems so daunting. While Water for Humans and many other like-minded organizations are doing what they can to heighten awareness and bring useful information to people that helps them address the clean water crisis, this is a problem that affects billions of people on a global scale.

• In the Developing World, most people do not have running water.
  
  
• 2.5 Billion people do not have access to a toilet or a latrine.
  
  
• Diarrhea kills more than 4,000 children each day, AND 90% of them these children are under 5 years old. Water.org estimates that diarrhea kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

But each one of us can change our personal lifestyle habits in subtle, easy ways that can free up enormous amounts of water. Examples include --

Taking a 4 -minute shower. (The average American takes at least an 8-minute shower and uses 20 gallons of water, four times as much water as someone in the developing world uses all day.)

Find out if your home has a water leak. Check your water meter. Then wait two hours without using any water. Then check the meter again. If the reading changes, you’ve got a leak. (According to the EPA, water leaks in U.S. homes account for more than 1 trillion wasted gallons per year.)

Turn off the water facet when you are brushing your teeth. (According to the EPA’s WaterSense program, the average bathroom faucet flows at a rate of 2 gallons per minute. So, a single person can save an average of 8 gallons of water each day by simply turning off the faucet when they brush their teeth.)

Take more showers and fewer baths. (A full bath can take 70 gallons to fill, according to the EPA, while a 5-minute shower will only wash away anywhere from 10 to 25 gallons.


Learn about easy, every-day ways you can save water. Visit http://tinyurl.com/6zuqoso and see what simple changes you can make to conserve our planet's most precious resource.

Then, when you watch stories on the news about people whose lives are ravaged by unsanitary water, you can feel good that you are doing something to help alleviate this worldwide crisis. Join Water for Humans to address this humanitarian initiative that will save lives. Thank you!

World Water Week-- Update

I hope you all know that this week is World Water Week.  For us the week started off with an event at Chief Sealth High School in West Seattle on Monday Evening.  We had an information table where we met over 50 + new folks interested in our work in Oaxaca. We also had new promotional materials designed by Jeffrey Hostert Graphic Design.  This was followed by a talk by Robert Glennon. Robert spoke about the current state of drinking water here in the US and how we are potentially headed for some challenging times with respect to access to adequate safe water.


Then on Tuesday we again hosted a table at Seattle City Hall.  Again this event was a success in that we met a lot of new faces and we were happy to hear that some of the folks who came to the event already knew about us, but did not know exactly what we are doing. On the upside we had to print up more handouts as we almost ran out by 11am.


We now have a new sticker to help promote our work

IT's World Water Day :)

March 22 is World Water Day.  Please swing by Seattle City Hall, as we will be there as part of the cities and county's efforts to support Water awareness.  We will have an information table setup to help us spread the word about our work.

Robert Glennon keynote speaker at Chief Sealth International High School’s World Water Week Event

Robert Glennon keynote speaker at Chief Sealth International High School’s World Water Week Event

www.westseattleherald.com

Robert Glennon, author of NYT bestseller “Unquenchable” and a U. of Arizona Professor of Law and Public Policy, will be among the featured speakers during World Water Week, presented by Chief Sealth International High School students at the school March 21-25.

Maria Soledad Diaz Gonzalez Reelected as the Agency Head of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla

Maria Soledad Diaz Gonzalez was reelected as the  Agency Head of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla. This election took several months to resolve as there was said to be irregularities, and the opposition was disputing the results. Just last week the election was certified fair and complete.  Maria has been the Agency Head for several years and her reelection is very important to our work in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla.Maria has been spearheading most of the environmental efforts in the community and with her support and the Community of Elders we have built strong community support to replace the derelict wastewater treatment plant with a sustainable natural treatment system.

On Wednesday Maria and the new Mayor of Villa De Etla met with our partner NGO

Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca (INSO) to discuss the strategy for our upcoming meeting with the Governor to present our solution to the derelict wastewater treatment plant. This derelict treatment plant floods several houses in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla when ever there is a big rain storm, and the raw sewage continuously floods farmers fields.

Marketing support from the Seattle University Marketing Club

I am pleased to announce the help and support from the Seattle University Marketing club. I met with the club on March 2nd to learn about their interest in helping Water for Humans develop a marketing strategy and plan.  Because the current term is coming to a close (finals are fast approaching), the club will take up this new effort in the Spring Quarter.  We look forward t working with this student group to provide us with much needed marketing expertise while providing students real hands on experience implementing their marketing strategy.