The Water School - Using Plastic Bottles to Clean Water and Fight Cholera in Haiti.

NEW YORK, NY, November 04, 2010

Solar Disinfection - known as SODIS - is a simple procedure to disinfect drinking water. By filling a transparent plastic or glass bottle with contaminated water and exposing it to the sun for 6 hours, the sun's natural UV-radiation kills the harmful pathogens that have plagued developing nations for centuries. As more than 4000 children die every day from the consequences of diarrhea alone, the work that Robert and Fraser are doing is needed now more than ever; because this number doesn't even count the deaths caused by other water borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis A, amoebic and bacillary dysentery and other diarrheal diseases.

In plain English, Robert and Fraser are using the same type of plastic bottles we casually throw away with every visit to a gym to save lives - lots of lives. Each year 4 billion cases of diarrhea alone cause 2.2 million deaths, mostly among children under the age of five. This is equivalent to one child dying every 15 seconds, or 20 jumbo jets crashing every day. These deaths represent approximately 15% of all child deaths under the age of five in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization, 2000.

What makes the efforts of Bob and Fraser so different is that before they even thought to create an organization to educate developing countries about the SODIS process, they put their feet on ground and simply started helping the people who needed help most. "When I first ran into Fraser, he had just returned from a trip in Africa where he witnessed some pretty horrible conditions. We tried to find some groups who could help. Then decided, what the heck, let's do it ourselves," says Robert Dell who just returned from fighting the cholera outbreak in Haiti. Robert Dell recently recalled a conversation he had with a doctor in Haiti, "I asked a doctor there what else we could do. He said, 'Keep it up and make it bigger. If you had been teaching your program in Haiti during the past 5 years, we would not have a cholera outbreak today.'.today.'

"We employ a simple process that works. It costs pennies, and has been proven again and again in developing nations throughout the world," says the Water School's CEO, Fraser Edwards. "Our only mission is to reach out to more communities to end outbreaks like what we are seeing in Haiti."

With a proactive approach to reaching men and women of all ages, the Water School is taking the first step to eradicating water borne diseases as we know them.

For more information, or to speak with these professionals with first-hand knowledge of the situation in Haiti, please contact Jeff Cannon at 212 993 6464, or via email at jc@thinkcannon.com, or jferarra@thinkcannon.com

The Water School is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide simple, safe, strategic, and sustainable clean water solutions to the developing world. TWS was founded in 2007 by Bob Dell, a water scientist, and Fraser Edwards, a businessman with decades of experience in partnering with indigenous leaders to implement lasting change. The Water School currently implements solar disinfection through its integrated teaching program of health and hygiene. http://www.thewaterschool.com