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In late June 2010, the United Nations declared “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life". And they urged the international community to "scale up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable water and sanitation for all".

Blue Mountain Project responded to this call before it became official. In November 2009, we, the Blue Mountain Project board and staff and the community of Hagley Gap, discussed which programs should be our priorities over the coming years. The provision of clean water was chosen as our top priority. The rational for this decision is clear.

According to the UN, about 1.5 million children under five die each year from water- and sanitation-related diseases, 884 million people have no access to safe drinking water. Three thousand of these people live in Hagley Gap.

There is no government (or private) supply of clean water in Hagley Gap District. Women, children, and donkeys carry water up steep hills daily to provide water for cooking and drinking. They fetch their water from the same places in which they wash themselves, their clothes, their vehicles. Blue Mountain Project volunteer groups have measured high levels of fecal coliforms and there are reports of dangerous chemicals such as lead in these sources.

Dr. Flaherty, a member of the Blue Mountain Project Board of Directors and a medical doctor with a master’s in public health, has very eloquently described the water situation in the Gap from a public health point of view:

In the medical records of the two clinics supported by the Blue Mountain Project there are a large number of documented illnesses of both parasitic and infectious diarrhea. Most of these cases can be attributed directly to the consumption of or food preparation with untreated or contaminated water. The other cases are from consumption of spoiled food or contact with a contaminated person or infected feces. Furthermore, once a population is chronically ingesting or using infected water, the incidence (the number of new cases per year) drops off as everyone is infected.

This high level of baseline infestation affects children disproportionally. Their growth and development are negatively affected as is their brain functions dealing with higher learning skills and emotional stability. It makes them more susceptible to other diseases as long-term parasitic infestation raises the general level of stress in their bodies and negatively affects their immune systems.

With the consumption of non-potable water by the community, it is not cost effective to test symptomatic people because everyone who drinks the water has the condition. The treatment is focused on reducing the parasitic load in symptomatic adults and in children by anti-helminthic (deworming) medicine. This will temporarily allow better food absorption, better hydration and growth albeit for a short period of time until they get re-infected. This is the current model of treatment, and is overall futile as they keep drinking the contaminated water and the diseases continue to come back. The organisms develop resistance to the treatment, thus making future treatment more difficult.

There is no doubt that the water has significant bacterial and parasitic infestations. The actual count per liter varies with the season and is dependent on flow, heat, and rainfall. The key point is that the water is continually consumed throughout the year and infection will occur and re-occur over time.

The question of hydrocarbons, toxic chemicals and heavy metals is a whole different ballgame. Long-term exposure causes far more diseases, primarily lead poisoning in children which causes retardation, developmental delay and a host of medical problems from organ failure to vision problems to infertility and death. The sad part is it is all preventable if diagnosed and the water is treated. Children and adults will survive, but they are damaged goods with two hands tied behind their backs trying to advance in the world. They are not going very far.
In far fewer words: The provision of clean water will have an incalculable effect on the health of the population of Hagley Gap as well as their prospects for a better future.

Blue Mountain Project has engaged Gwion Parri, a chartered civil engineer with experience in developing potable water systems and working in developing countries, as an Ambassador (a year long volunteer who lives and works in Hagley Gap). Gwion is currently researching all available water sources and conducting a door-to-door water survey in the project catchment area to determine what the water usage levels are, where and how people obtain water, and other factors that will affect the design of a water system.
Once this is completed, Water Committees will be formed. These committees, comprised of representative community members, will provide community input on the water system design options. He will then complete the design of the system and start the building process.
Other aspects of the program include:

1. Obtaining volunteers from within the community to help construct the system
2. Obtaining expert volunteers from the Technical University in Kingston to help with surveying and construction supervision
3. Establishing a maintenance program
4. Training the community on the importance of potable water (while clean water was chosen as a high priority many people in the community do not fully understand the impact of “dirty” water on their lives)
5. Training the community on the use of potable and grey water
6. Training volunteer community members on system maintenance and repair
7. Training the Water Committees on system care and maintenance, water use dispute arbitration, establishing handling water use fees

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