WaSH stands for water, sanitation and hygiene. Lions of Europe have a number of ongoing projects in Africa and Asia to bring fresh drinking water, proper basic sanitation facilities and to teach local people hygienic habits to avoid spreading of illnesses caused by bacteria. There are a multitude of projects ongoing and we will be displaying short descriptions of these projects here. There is a European Lions WaSH working group which acts as a coordinating body for all these projects.
Everybody is talking about the United Nations sustainable development goals. Goal no.6 is clean water and sanitation. Clean, accessible water for all is an essential part of the world we want to live in. There is sufficient fresh water on the planet to achieve this. But due to bad economics or poor infrastructure, every year millions of people, most of them children, die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene.
This system is called PAUL. It is a membrane installation which can work for years without electricity. It takes dirty water from a raw water tank, which could for example be a tank to collect rain water. Water flows through a membrane which does not allow bacteria through and drinkable water ends up in a clean water tank. Such installations are already in use at many schools and villages in Africa, thanks to German Lions.