Club's quest for clean water

By Megan Zehnder

This spring break, 20 Santa Clara students are setting aside beach vacations and Caribbean excursions to build safe water structures for people living in rural Honduras.

The students are part of a club on campus known as Global Water Brigades.

One billion people in the world do not have access to clean water, and 2 million people die each year due to waterborne illnesses.

Volunteers for Global Water Brigades will go to Honduras and talk to people in the area to find out where they get their water. Then they will test these water sources for sanity and safety.

If the water is not safe to use, they plan to build systems that bring a safe water source to the community.

Global Water Brigades is one division of a larger network, Global Brigades, which prides itself on being a student-led international organization. According to its Web site, globalbrigades.org, the organization aims to provide "sustainable solutions that improve quality of life while respecting local culture and improving the environment."

The network has dedicated students working on college campuses nationwide, including Marquette, Pennsylvania State, University of California, San Diego, Boston University and University of California, Davis. The Santa Clara chapter is led by freshman Katie Hughes, the group's president, and advised by environmental studies professor Iris Stewart-Frey.

"As a hydrologist, I am keenly aware how many people do not have access to clean drinking water and suffer illness and death as a result, especially the children," said Stewart-Frey. "By some estimates, 2.6 billion people today have water supply systems that are inferior to those of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and more than 5 million people die each year from water-related diseases. Therefore, I would like to support students that volunteer to help people obtain safe water," she said.

The secular, nonprofit organization officially started in 2003, four years after Hurricane Mitch ravaged Central America, killing more than 12,000 people and displacing tens of thousands more.

Honduras was one of the hardest-hit countries, so Global Brigades implemented its help there.

Hughes said she has always had an interest in public health and signed up for Global Medical Brigades, another division of Global Brigades, during the club fair in the fall. When Hughes went to the first meeting, she found out that members wanted to start a Global Water Brigades chapter here, and she decided to head the project.

Water contamination is the cause of diseases like cholera, explained Hughes, and these waterborne illnesses are very pervasive in Honduras, especially after the landslides caused by Hurricane Mitch.

"You have to start at the source," said Hughes.

Hurricane Mitch left 75 percent of people in Honduras without safe water. "They had three days of full rain after the hurricane was over. There were a lot of landslides. All their water was contaminated," said Hughes.

This had a large impact on Honduras, which was already a very poor country. "Their government doesn't have a lot of money to put into safe water," explained Hughes.

"Global Water Brigades is more preventative care," said junior Christopher Wooley, who will be traveling with the club to Honduras in the spring. "It's trying to stop the problem at its source, and clean water is essential to good health."

Wooley initially got involved with the program after writing a grant proposal for Global Medical Brigades for a class project. "I want to help in whatever way I can," said Wooley. "A lot of their illnesses come from bacteria in water. I thought, if I'm really serious about helping these people, the best thing I can do is help bring clean water."

Hughes is hopeful about the growth of Global Water Brigades. "I definitely think it's going to become very popular on campus," she said.

Both Hughes and Wooley said that it is very important that the organization is student-run. "What you do during school becomes a reality when you're out there," said Hughes. "In sociology class, you might write a paper about poverty, but you don't actually see it until you go somewhere and help fight it."

Lulu Santana, campus minister, will be supervising the students on their trip in the spring.

"I am looking forward to participating in the project and observing how students learn and grow from the experience," said Santana, who has participated in previous service trips. She is particularly interested in this trip because of the specific mission that Global Water Brigades hopes to achieve.

On the Water Brigades Web site, waterbrigades.org, people can make donations that go toward students' expenses for the Honduras trip. Funds are definitely needed, said Hughes, because in addition to flight and accommodation expenses, volunteers bring many of the materials and tools they use to build the water structures.

On Feb. 4 and 5, Global Water Brigades will be holding a fundraiser event at Stuft Pizza. A portion of the profits made will go to their cause if customers mention the club when they order their food.

Contact Megan Zehnder at mzehnder@scu.edu.