Jeronima Ramos is finished.

Jeronima Ramos is finished hauling water. She is finished drinking dirty water. She is finished using the forest as her bathroom. She is finished watching children in her community get sick from dirty water.

And she is so convinced she is finished hauling water, this frail 70-year-old woman stood in front of her entire community and threw her water pot to the ground, breaking the ceramic container to pieces and shouting “I will haul water no more!”

Jeronima has good reason to make such a dramatic gesture. Jeronima has hauled water nearly every day for the past 70 years. In recent years, she has lived alone and continued to haul water by herself from an unprotected water source 15 minutes from her house up to five times a day.

Now, with the new water system in her community, she says, “I feel happy because I am not carrying water on my head anymore. I have clean water for bathing, for drinking – for everything.”

She is also grateful that the children in her community will be drinking clean water. “I think the children’s basic health will improve and they won’t get sick anymore,” said Jeronima. “When my children were little they would get sick from the water and we would have to run to the health centers.”

Jeronima is finished hauling water, and she and her community are so happy to have started their new life with clean water and safe latrines.

This week, we’re celebrating the 200 million people who have gained access to clean water over the past 10 years. Join us by donating your Facebook and Twitter status at oneWEEKforWATER.org.

World Water Week 2010 Success Stories

Organized by Gramalaya, Water.org’s partner organization in Tiruchirappalli, and sponsored by Water.org and PespsiCo Foundation, this growing event is now in its eleventh year. It was held at the National Institute of Water and Sanitation (NIWAS) Training. As one man said, “It’s better and more important than a festival – only for World Water Day would I have traveled so far.”

On stage, a number of people shared their story of how a new water or sanitation has transformed their life. While each story was unique, the theme was the same: access to clean water and toilets unlocks the door to a new world of hope and opportunity.

As part of World Water Day, women have committed to a campaign that begins with 100,000 families to not only create awareness, but to instill proper hand-washing, hygiene and toilet habits. It’s expected to reach more than 500,000 people.

The World Water Day celebrants care deeply about the event and have a very personal stake it what it symbolizes. Each day, they witness preventable water-related diseases, such as diarrhea, keeping their children from attending school and limiting their future. They themselves may spend hours each day collecting water, or to put themselves in a vulnerable position to defecate in an open field late at night, for lack of toilet access.

Thankfully, these things are changing for many. With the support of organizations like Gramayala, Water.org, GUARDIAN, and PepsiCo Foundation, communities are getting organized and educated, and making life-saving changes to the water and sanitation situation in their homes and villages. Through GUARDIAN, groups have taken out microcredit loans to pay for the toilet they’ve never had in their home, the household water point that saves them from two hours of walking each day for their family’s water. These exciting new opportunities are having a ripple effect, creating demand from neighbors for toilet and water connections, and for hygiene education.

This fast-growing World Water Day 2009 celebration on the other side of the world reminds us of water’s profound impact in all of our lives and how it continues to connect us all.

A special thanks to Amiran White for the images in this article.

Read full Los Angeles Times article.

The current drought, however, is just a manifestation of a bigger, silent crisis affecting the Philippines: a water crisis. Rapid urbanization has contaminated our surface and groundwater resources. According to a 2007 study by the Asian Development Bank, only about a third of our river systems may be used as suitable sources of clean water, and more than half (58 percent) of groundwater sources are now contaminated.

A cost-efficient and effective means to address both the water shortage and recharge our groundwater is through rainwater harvesting, a practice already in existence 4,000 years ago, in the Negev desert of Palestine, where rainfall is short and seldom. It is also an ancient practice in India, where rain falls like a deluge, short but torrential.

Read full Business Mirror article.

According to her, the lack of access to potable water and decent sanitation facilities has a major impact on women and girls especially when they are forced to spend greater parts of their time fetching water.

Read full Public Agenda article.