19/08/2014
Water, like religion and ideology has the power to move millions of people. Since the birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to water. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write and sing and dance and dream about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it.
We need it for drinking, for cooking, for washing, for food, for industry, for energy, for transport, for rituals, for fun, for life. And it is not only we humans who need it; all life is dependent on water to survive.
But we stand today on the brink of a global water crisis. The two major legacies of the 20th Century - the population and technological explosions - have taken their toll on our water supply. More people lack drinking water today than they did two decades ago. More and more freshwater sources are being used-up and contaminated. Modern technologies have allowed us to harness much of the world's water for energy, industry and irrigation - but often at a terrible social and environmental price.
With logging camps, quarries and mines mushrooming in the tropical rainforests of Malaysia, intruding the sacred lands of our original people, the Orang Asals are most susceptible to the water crisis. One such example is Long Itam village, home to over 200 Penans in the remote area of Baram, Sarawak.
Due to deforestation activities, their livelihoods were severely affected : loss of clean water, food scarcity, catastrophic destruction of their forests and their homes. As a consequence, many Penans of Long Itam suffer from numerous health issues.
Therefore, one of our objectives is to build a sustainable and easily manageable infrastructure for access to clean water, and we are happy to report that this objective has been achieved. Each house in Long Itam now has a tap with clean water running from the spring water source.
The Water4Life team hopes that this would improve the quality of living in Long Itam and would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of you - our sponsors, donors, supporters, family members and friends. Having lived with water just at the touch of a tap, we city folks, fall prey to taking water for granted. The team's experience in Long Itam reminded us of water and its importance. As a core element of life, we're glad that the Penans can now drink, wash, clean and cook with peace of mind.
