East Africa goes through a reoccurring cycle of drought and in some cases this deteriorates into famine every few years. The loss of life in these cases, due to the lack of water, is unacceptable. Because communities go for months on end without rainfall, they are forced to drink contaminated water that is full of diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and other serious illnesses. A child dies every 25 seconds because of water borne diseases.

It’s all in aid of Islamic Relief (IR), the Water4Life Project through East Africa. These projects have an estimated life span of around 80 years, which means that an entire generation could have clean water every single day.

The reason why I am inspired by this cause is because IR is fixated on breaking this cycle of deprivation and dependency through sustainable means.

Once the hole is dug, a submersible pump is lowered into the water source and is connected to a power source above ground, either a solar powered battery or a generator. The water is pumped up through the pipe and filtered into a storage tank. The tank can hold approximately 35,000 litres of water at a time and is usually filled twice a day. That’s 70,000 litres of clean, pure, safe drinking water a day!