The facts are truly disturbing - around 1.4 million children die every year from diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation and drinking unclean water, according to WaterAid, an international non-governmental organisation. Cholera and dysentery cause severe, often life-threatening, forms of diarrhoea which can last a few days, even a few weeks.
Impure water is also a major cause of gastroenteritis, a bowel infection caused by bacteria. According to the World Health Organisation, gastrointestinal infections claim more than 2.2 million lives globally each year, most of these children in developing countries.
In several Asian and African countries including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia, women are forced either to travel great distances to get clean drinking water or resort to using unclean sources of water.
Children, too, are forced to fetch water for their families, balancing heavy pots on their heads - a daily routine that denies them the opportunity of going to school. It was this image of children having to work so hard for something we take for granted here in the UAE that first struck a chord with Aqil Rashid, a Grade 11 student at St Mary's School in Dubai, two years ago.
Just 13 years old at the time, Aqil, who lives in Bur Dubai, was considering ways he could put the money he received as gifts during the Eid festivities to good use, when his father drew his attention to the predicament of children in Afghanistan.
"He had just read an article about the potable water crisis in parts of Afghanistan and told me how thousands of people there do not have easy access to clean drinking water and have to spend hours sometimes walking to wells to fetch water for the family,'' Aqil remembers.
"I couldn't believe how I could open a tap anywhere in my home for clean water while these children were losing out on their precious childhood and missing school only because of lack of access to such facilities… The more I thought about it the more it seemed insane that children should be deprived of such a basic necessity."
Motivated to help
Determined to do something that could be of help, Aqil decided to contact his friends and family and raise funds to build wells in remote villages in Afghanistan where accessing potable water was difficult.
According to Aqil's father Rashid, the desire to help others or be of some service to the larger community is a trait he's exhibited since hewas small.
Brought up in an environment where he was constantly encouraged to work for social causes, he remembers offering to shave off his hair when he was eight, to raise funds for the construction of a sports rehabilitation centre at a local hospital in Dubai.
"My father's friend had challenged me to do it, saying he would provide a certain amount towards the cause. I remember I did not hesitate and garnered support among friends and shaved off my hair."
That experience was a great motivator and since then, Aqil has worked on several other humanitarian projects in the UAE including for Dubai Cares, Clean Up Dubai and the Terry Fox Run. Once he made up his mind to help people in Afghanistan have access to potable water, Aqil began to gather as much information as he could about the conditions there from the internet and friends who were born there.
"I spent hours on the net checking out villages that have problems with access to water and children who are affected by drinking poor-quality water,'' says Aqil.
Finding the best way forward
It was during his research that he stumbled upon the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of Roshan, Afghanistan's leading telecommunications provider. It had launched a project called Build a Well and Aqil was instantly drawn to it.
"Roshan had begun its well-building project in 2006 with the aim of building wells across the country to make safe, drinking water accessible to the residents. I found it amazing that a single well, built at a cost of $2,000 (Dh7,340) could on average, support 1,000 people. That works out to only $2 (Dh7.34) per person. I knew I had to help."
So the teenager set about raising funds to support the cause. "I initially approached my immediate circle of family and my parents' friends. Within three weeks, one person, who doesn't want to be named, came forward to ‘adopt' a well and he offered to pay $2,000.''
Aqil was so encouraged by that one donation, that he set himself a target of raising enough money to pay for 15 wells - which would help at least 15,000 people and save countless children's lives.
The first thing he did was to get on his laptop and send emails to all his friends and extended-family members informing them of his mission and requesting them to help him. Soon, he began receiving funds that he collected and sent to Roshan, which in turn channelled them to its well-building programme.
"I felt it made sense to tie up with an organisation that was already based there and was doing the work. I spoke to a few elders in my family and they too felt it would make sense to channel funds to a professional body as they would know how and where to build the wells,'' he explains.
Carrying out the plan
Aqil contacts large corporations and business by email and telephone and briefs them about his mission and the work he has been doing. The effort is paying off since several companies have offered him help in reaching his target. Over the past two years, he has raised $25,000, which has helped build 12 wells in various parts of Afghanistan. "Once the funds are sent to Afghanistan, the company, which has already identified areas where wells are required, begins construction,'' he says. A well can be built in about three weeks.
It was while at his former school, Dubai Scholars, that Aqil began his well-building project. "Here, we were exposed to a range of community-development activities," he says. "We'd been to labour camps with care packages, and volunteered for several environment and charity campaigns.''
"When I don't have my exams, I spend at least an hour or more every day on the laptop communicating with potential donors, contacting businesses and friends looking at ways to raise funds to dig more wells in needy areas of Afghanistan,'' he says.
Aquil is also a member of several community groups in Pakistan and he taps them all to raise funds for this initiative. He has also launched a facebook page called ‘1 well 700 lives' (www.facebook.com/1well700lives) to post news about the well-building project.
At the heart of the matter
For the residents of Afghanistan, poor infrastructure and inadequate sources of clean drinking water both in rural and urban areas continue to remain a challenge, says Shainoor Khoja, Director of Corporate Affairs at Roshan, in Afghanistan.
She explains, "This is a nationwide issue that worsens the deeper you go into the remote areas. One of its most significant impacts has been the rise of illnesses due to waterborne diseases. This, in turn, escalates health-care costs and whatever little the Afghans earn is spent on medical care thereby perpetuating the poverty cycle."
The company has to date built 80 wells. The wells provide clean drinking water to more than 100,000 people.
"A clean-water project creates multiple benefits to a community, namely, access to safe drinking water, healthier communities and greater hygiene and sanitation habits," Shainoor says. "More importantly, it gives time, freedom and incentive for women and children to change their communities. With access to clean water, women can pursue other opportunities to improve their families' lives while kids can go to school to build a better future for themselves. In a world of plenty, it is important to have people like Aqil that care, raise awareness and the consciousness of the wealthier communities to the needs and difficulties of those less fortunate."
Aqil, in turn, says, "It's so heartening to know that even one well drilled in the boys' high school located in Imam Sahib district of Kunduz Province gives 4,000 students and 75 teachers a source of clean drinking water while in the village of Eid Gah, Ghazni province, one well provides sustainable drinking water to 110 families. With the size of an average household being seven, up to 770 people benefit from the construction of this single well,'' says Aqil.
Visiting affected areas
Given the security concerns in Afghanistan, Aqil regrets that he has not yet been able to visit the country to witness first hand how clean water has transformed lives and communities. Hehas, however, had the chance - along withthree of his friends - to go on a charitable venture to Chitral in northern Pakistan to see first hand the challenges people there face with regard to access to educational facilities.
"Our visit to Chitral was facilitated by the Hashoo Foundation, a non-profit organisation that has been implementing viable economic developmental, educational and capacity-building programmes in Pakistan since 1988,"says Aqil.
"During our three-week stay, we first visited Umeed-e-Noor Center in Islamabad, a skills-development training project for special-needs children. We taught children in a school in Chitral; visited the Honey Bee Farming Project initiated to empower women, and enjoyed the amazing hospitality of the people living in those wonderful mountains.
"The experience was enriching and it helped me understand how my work must have been making a difference in the lives of the people living in Afghanistan.
"The fact that while living here in Dubai I could remotely touch the lives of kids ina faraway land has been the most satisfying part of the whole journey,'' he says, adding "but my work is far from over."
"One of the chief reasons for initiating the Facebook campaign was to reach out to corporate houses in the UAE to back this cause.
"Second, I wanted donors to see how exactly their funds have brought about change, and third, it is my hope that youngsters my age will be motivated enough to get involved in any cause they are passionate about.
"I believe each of us can do something to make a small impact on others' lives. We are global citizens; it doesn't matter which project or corner of the world we serve. If we can impact even one life - that's a great achievement."
Committed to change
Aqil is keen pursue his education in a field related to the environment.
He says, "An International Development Studies Programme will help me gain understanding of the critical issues and problems common to developing regions and learn how best to alleviate these. My aim is to use my education to make a difference in the world."
Aqil's chief source of inspiration is Bilaal Rajan, a Canadian boy who began fundraising at the age of four.
"He sold clementine oranges door-to-door and raised $350 to help the 2001 earthquake victims in Gujarat, India. Today, at 15 years old, he is a motivational speaker, author, child ambassador of Unicef Canada, founder of the Making Change Now organisation and has helped fundraise several million dollars for various causes. He is a real hero."
Making a difference
Who: Aqil Rashid
What: Helping build wells to provide clean drinking water to thousands of families
Where: Remote villages of Afghanistan