Day of Information:
Date: April 10, 2010
Time: 11:30am to 2:00pm
In-person registration: starts at 10:45am
Registration Fee: $12.00
Parking: Lot 64 behind Werblin Rec Center (Directions)
How to get involved?
The Registration and Donation links are below. Please complete the registration link and the registration fee can be payed online by donating an amount of at least $12.
Registration: Walk for Water
Donations and Registration Fee
If you would like to have a way to keep track of any funds you raise a sponsorship form is available below. Donations collected can be submitted via the donation link or by handing in the sponsorship form with the donation on the day of the walk.
Sponsorship Form
What is Walk for Water?
Walk for water is a walkathon to benefit the nonprofit U.S. 501(c)3 and South African non-governmental organization, PlayPumps International which installs playpump systems for underdeveloped communities with limited access to water. These provide clean water so that women and children will not have to walk upwards of 3.3 miles a day carrying five gallons of water. To raise awareness of this issue we will ask participants to carry up to 2 gallons of water for a maximum of 6 laps to simulate the ordeal. We hope to raise upwards of $ 14,000, or the approximate cost of one playpump.
Why is this important?
By installing a water pump, children can stay in school instead of spending hours retrieving water. A water pump will provide easy access to clean water, which in turn will decrease the amount of water-borne diseases and hopefully lower the statistic that one out of every four deaths under the age of five worldwide is related to water-borne disease. Often women injure themselves procuring water because the heavy forty-four pounds leads to spinal deformation. To worsen the situation, spinal deformation sometimes results in the obstruction of the birth canal, which is risky for both the mother and child. Also, girls, who are usually forced to retrieve water, are unable to go to school. This partially explains the discrepancy between male literacy and female literacy in Africa. In 2000, the average literacy rate for men was 68.9% and only 52% for women. This will also decrease the instances of childhood diarrhea, which kills more than 2 million children each year worldwide.
How does this work?
The engineering aspect of this playground is simple and more importantly, sustainable (see Figure 1). Children play on a PlayPump merry-go-round (1) and spin the pump (2) which causes water from underground (3) to be forced up into a 2,500 liter tank (4). This is connected to a tap for adults and children to take water from (5). Excess water is returned back into the ground (6). The storage tank has four facades. Two sides will be used for health and educational messages and the remaining two will be leased for consumer advertising (7). The revenue gained from the leasing will pay for the water pump in ten years. It can pump 1,400 liters of water per hour at 16 revolutions per minute (rpm) from a depth of 40 meters. It is effective up to a depth of 100 meters.
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