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KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – The Kunar River, which is fed from the melting glaciers and snow from the Hindu Kush Mountains, runs 480 kilometers and flows from eastern Afghanistan to northwestern Pakistan.
Most villages in the Naray district of Kunar province span the river’s edge and the people rely on the river as their primary source of drinking water.
For those with weak or compromised immune systems such as young children, the elderly and sick people, the river is not a spring of life, but a ticking time bomb for exposure to various diseases.
“Waterborne diseases are responsible for more deaths in young children in Naray and Kunar at large than insurgency,” said Capt. Brian Sbertoli, commander of Company C, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.
“The most common illnesses are things like cholera, diphtheria and giardiasis because they don’t have access to safe drinking water,” said Sbertoli, a native of Woodsdale, Ill.
To help combat the risks associated with consuming dirty river water, Company C, 1st Batallion, 12th Inf. Regiment, continued the work of a previous unit by distributing one-micron water filters to people in need.
Sixty local national men who work on Forward Operating Base Bostick received a class April 8 on how to install, use and maintain the filters before taking them home to their families.
Dr. Jamsheed, the Naray district health director, came to FOB Bostick to teach the class and Gul Zaman, the district sub-governor, was also in attendance to help distribute the filters.
“I just called my wife and told her, ‘I have a magic something to show you that you have never seen in your life,’” said Mateen, the FOB Bostick laundry point supervisor and a Naray District native. “Today is a very special day because I can stand up and give my family clean water with this water filter.”
During a patrol in a nearby village April 11, the unit delivered filters to a girls school as well as a womens clinic.
If the filters are shared among the community as intended, thousands of Afghans in the Naray district can now drink water without fear of getting sick.
“The filters were provided through a nonprofit organization called 'Waves for Water,'” Sbertoli explained. “If maintained properly, one $50 filter can supply a village of 200 people with clean drinking water for up to five years.”
With a bucket, a knife, and the simple-to-use filters, lives in Naray are changing one drop at a time.
| Date Taken: | 04.14.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 04.14.2012 06:26 |
| Story ID: | 86752 |
| Location: | KUNAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 436 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Clean water for Kunar, by SSG Andrea Merritt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
