Clean Water Initiative Project

November 29, 2010

Safe Drinking Water, Dehydration, Dry Eye and Global Politics

Clean Water Initiative Project

John Mashaka (Charlotte, NC), investment banker and founder of the John Mashaka Foundation, Sponsor of the Clean Water Initiative Project.

I was excited to talk with Mr. Mashaka because of his involvement in water projects in rural Africa. Worldwide, 1.6 billion people lack clean drinking water. Africa is in a water crisis! 80% of illness is caused by dehydration and polluted water. Dehydration diseases such as severe dry eye leading to blindness, allergies, cholera and diarrhea are out of control. Lack of clean water makes economic development impossible

John Mashaka is a U.S. investment banker born in Tanzania. In 2005, he visited Africa. Because of the poverty he observed, caused by the global water and dry air crisis, he created the John Mashaka Foundation and the Clean Water Initiative Project.

I was all too aware of conditions in a typical African village: Women and children walk 20 miles a day, every day, to fetch polluted water. This prevents children from going to school (assuming they live that long) and mothers from participating in the community. In Africa, they say, clean running water, or even a local well, could transform societies. This is also true in Central and South America and parts of Asia.

Mr. Mashaka and I agreed that clean water is the world's #1 environmental, economic, social and health issue. John finds it "shameful" that wealthy nations and businesses cannot make free water available to all since they have the finances and technology. Only greed, he believes, prevents this. According to Mr. Mashaka, most water charities do not create long-term solutions because when you drill a well in a village, everybody moves there and the well's capacity is quickly exceeded.

The John Mashaka Foundation and the Clean Water Initiative Project supply wells, water storage towers and the means to increase capacity. The cost per year per person is only 43 cents!

Related Websites:

www.JohnMashakaFoundation.org
www.FreeWaterForAll.com.
www.lifewater.org
Click here for the full audio of my interview with John Mashaka.
Click here for my Reflections on the John Mashaka interview.
Click here for the bama Care and "True Health Care Reform." with BJ White

Related past shows:

July 8th, 2010
Living Water
Guest: Jerry Wiles, PhD

October 12, 2009
Lifewater International and Cooperative Water Management
Guest: Kinoti Meme, PhD

September 21, 2009
Project WET and the Global Importance of Water
Guest: Dennis Nelson

June 22, 2009
Global Access to Sanitation and Water
Guest: Rik J. Deitsch, PhD

January 12, 2009
Safe and Abundant Water for the Third World.
Guest: Kinoti Meme, Ph.D.