by Thomas Howard Elliot

Created on: March 22, 2010   Last Updated: March 23, 2010

Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation claims 4,500 lives a day. What should we do about it?

I come from a small island town in Alaska where water is rarely an issue.  We are a special area in South East Alaska in that our land is mostly rocky, with very little top soil, and very little porous rock to create an aquifer.  We also get, more importantly, between 12 and 13 feet of rain precipitation a year.  Yes feet.  Most of this runs off the hard rock terrain into many thousands of rivers and streams, arriving at the Pacific Ocean shortly thereafter. 

There have been several dams built in the area, mostly 40 years or more ago, and generally to capture water for drinking and other municipal uses.  There are several hydroelectric power plants in the region, utilizing the resource to general the energy needs of the small communities in the area.  The extreme isolation of some of these communities, coupled with the increasing environmental constraints and costs of construction have limited the construction of new projects, and therefore many communities are “running out” of power; the generation capacity will soon not cover the need.

What does this have to do with the inadequate access to safe water across the planet?  Let me refer back to the first paragraph:  12 feet of rain over thousands of square miles runs off the rocky terrain uncaptured, unused, and unhelpful to anyone.

The water quality is excellent, being rainwater in a very pristine part of the world.  Many people in the region capture this water off their roofs and use it for drinking water, with nothing more than a particulate filter.   The quantity is massive, as stated earlier, and replenish able because it is generated because of our location, next to the ocean, and in the path of a warm ocean current, with mountainous terrain to collect the water in lakes and streams. 

My proposal is twofold.  Capture all the water that possibly can be captured, keeping in mind as much environmental respect to wild life as is feasible.  This is relatively easy to accomplish as there are already hundreds of large lakes that can be used as cisterns as is, or dammed up and used to create hydro electric facilities to aid the regional power needs, and even provide and excess to put on the continental grid via Canada (less than a mile away in some areas).  Pipe the water at a rate determined to be acceptable in environmental

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