Today, Tuesday, March 22, is the United Nations’ World Water Day with this year’s theme being Groundwater – Making the Invisible Visible, something Bread and Water for Africa® has been doing for decades since digging our first well in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere,” states the UN. “Out of sight, under our feet, groundwater is a hidden treasure that enriches our lives.”
The UN notes that almost all of the liquid freshwater in the world is groundwater, and adding this warning, “As climate change gets worse, groundwater will become more and more critical.”
World Water Day has been observed each year of March 22 since 1993 to celebrate water and raise awareness of the two billion people currently living without access to safe water, countless millions in the sub-Saharan African countries where Bread and Water for Africa® has been digging wells, protecting springs and more including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and most recently, Chad.
A UNICEF report on the water crisis in sub-Saharan Africa noted that while 11 percent of the global population still lacks access to clean water, “Those who lack a safe water source are largely concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa – where only 61 percent have access to safe water” which means 39 percent of those tens of millions do not.
“Groundwater may be out of sight, but it must not be out of mind,” says the UN.
We at Bread and Water for Africa® agree wholeheartedly as planning ways of retrieving clean drinking water for tens of thousands living without in rural villages throughout sub-Saharan Africa is always foremost in our minds.
