[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 58 (Monday, April 23, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S2599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO CAROLYN CROWLEY MEUB
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to pay
tribute to Carolyn Meub, Executive Director of Pure Water for the
World, a Vermont-based nonprofit organization that brings clean water
to thousands of families in Honduras and Haiti.
Last week, the White House honored Carolyn as one of 10 Rotary Club
members from across the country who are improving the lives of others
through volunteer work. Carolyn has transformed Pure Water for the
World from a small Rotary club project into an effective international
NGO. Under her leadership, the organization is implementing a
sustainable model for clean water programs by building clean water
filtration systems, providing hygiene education, and installing
latrines to improve sanitation. Twenty-thousand Honduran families now
have access to clean drinking water, and 1,200 schools in Haiti have
clean water systems and hygiene education curriculums, because of Pure
Water for the World. That is no small feat.
As Carolyn points out, clean water is a tap away for most Americans,
but for more than three-quarters of a billion of the world's people
accessing safe water is a daily struggle. The United Nations reports
that 3.5 million people die each year from diseases related to drinking
contaminated water.
In February, my wife Marcelle visited Port-au-Prince as part of a
delegation I led with five other Members of Congress, where she saw
firsthand the simple, inexpensive household water filtration systems
being built and donated by Pure Water for the World. Each unit, the
size of an office water cooler and made of concrete or plastic, is
filled with layers of sand and gravel that trap microorganisms as the
water passes through. This process of slow sand filtration is
inexpensive and produced from local materials, making it ideally suited
for developing countries.
Pure Water for the World is doing important and inspiring work,
providing sustainable sources of safe drinking water and promoting
habits to improve health and sanitation in poor communities in Honduras
and Haiti. I am very proud that Carolyn received this well-deserved
recognition at the White House on behalf of her organization. We all
appreciate the work they are doing.
I ask unanimous consent that the Rutland Herald article entitled
``Hope flows: Vt. nonprofit pours `Pure Water for the World' '' be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Rutland Herald, Mar. 18, 2012]
Hope Flows: Vt. Nonprofit Pours ``Pure Water for the World''
(By Kevin O'Connor)
Rutland resident Carolyn Crowley Meub didn't fret when her
hometown turned on its faucets two weeks ago to find, due to
a water main break, the usually clean stream down to a dirty
trickle. She was flying off to the Caribbean--specifically,
to Haiti, where the situation is even worse.
Meub is one of several prominent Vermonters who've recently
witnessed the problems of the earthquake ravaged island--and
the solutions of the Green Mountains-based nonprofit Pure
Water for the World, which is aiming to pour hope across
hemispheres to mark United Nations World Water Day on
Thursday.
For most Americans, clean water is a tap away. But 1
billion people worldwide drink from contaminated springs and
streams, the United Nations reports, while 3.5 million people
die each year from related diseases.
State Rep. Margaret Cheney, D Norwich, joined her husband,
U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D Vt., in a February tour of the
Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, where, between a
congressional delegation's visits with the country's
president and actor Sean Penn's relief organization, she saw
the water challenge firsthand.
``It's the poorest, most chaotic scene in the world,''
Cheney says of crowded slums equipped with little more than
rain barrels. ``The water can be the unknown bearer of
terrible diseases. Catch them and you can't work, you can't
go to school, you can't really function.''
Organizations like the U.S. Agency for International
Development are working to help densely populated areas of
the globe that report 75 percent of the problem. But that
leaves more than 250 million people without potable water in
remote rural settings. Enter Vermont's Pure Water, which is
installing simple, inexpensive household filters in
developing countries in the Caribbean and Central America.
Dr. Noelle Thabault, a Burlington native, graduated from
the University of Vermont College of Medicine before
practicing in Rutland. After a magnitude 7.0 earthquake
decimated Haiti in 2010, she flew to Port-au-Prince as a Pure
Water volunteer and now serves as its deputy regional
director.
``I recognized the role that lack of clean water plays in
illness,'' Thabault recalls of her knowledge before arriving,
``but I had no understanding of the scope of the problem.''
Two years in the trenches, Thabault recently hosted Cheney
and Marcelle Leahy, wife of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D Vt.
The doctor told them that more than 40 percent of Haitians
live without clean water, leading to diseases that are the
country's second leading cause of death and fill more than
half of all hospital beds with patients suffering from
bacteria or parasites.
``Clean water is so necessary,'' says Marcelle Leahy,
herself a nurse. ``But Haiti unfortunately was lacking a lot
of the necessities of everyday life even prior to the
earthquake.''
Most U.S. municipalities filter water at central reservoirs
and then distribute it through pipes. But that doesn't work
in Caribbean and Central American villages with more poverty
than plumbing. Cheney and Leahy visited a Pure Water plant
that manufactures the kind of ``slow sand'' household filters
used in New England for its first 150 years.
Pure Water taps the sand system because it costs as little
as $150 to produce, install and monitor; requires no moving
parts or electricity; and can be built with locally available
materials. Each unit, shaped of concrete or plastic and sized
like an office water cooler, is filled with several layers of
sand and gravel. Pour in water, and the mixture traps
microorganisms that, in turn, decompose other organic
material.
Water that passes through the filter is clear in color,
taste and smell. More importantly, it's rid of up to 90
percent of toxins, 97 percent of fecal coliform bacteria and
100 percent of worms and parasites.
``It's such a clever, simple concept, and it works,'' Leahy
says. ``You're employing people, they're earning a living and
improving their health.''
Cheney, for her part, was equally impressed by Pure Water
posters written in Creole that explain the importance of
proper hand-washing, hygiene and waste disposal.
``They're providing really simple tools and educational
efforts--the common-sense Vermont way--to help make this
sustainable,'' Cheney says. ``They have a great banner that
says, `Clean water is medicine.' We take it so for granted,
but that's the basic key to recovery.''
Pure Water bubbled up two decades ago after Brattleboro
dentist Peter Abell traveled to El Salvador and saw people
drinking dirty water that caused diarrhea, cholera and
dysentery. Abell's local Rotary club went on to raise money
to provide clean water in El Salvador and later Honduras,
then incorporated its volunteer efforts into the Pure Water
nonprofit, which Meub has headed from Rutland for the past 10
years.
Pure Water so far has spent at least $5 million on projects
to provide safe drinking water--a comparatively small sum
compared with the $20 billion a year the United Nations
estimates it would cost to provide clean water to everyone on
the planet. But as Meub notes, helping one family, one
school, one community at a time, ``many drops of water
eventually fill a bucket.''
Americans, for their part, annually spend billions on
store-bought bottled water. Consider what Rutlanders were
willing to pay after the city's recent main break. As Meub
was packing for her trip, husband William Meub fielded calls
from fellow residents wondering how many hours they'd lack
water. He recalled his own travels to Haiti after the
earthquake.
``They let me take a shower with a yogurt container full of
water,'' the lawyer says. ``It's a whole different experience
than anyone here has any familiarity with.
That's why Pure Water is streaming its message (the latest:
Gov. Peter Shumlin will promote World Water Day this week
with a proclamation) through Facebook, Twitter and the
website purewaterfortheworld.org.
Says Carolyn Meub: ``Safe drinking water should be a basic
human right.''
And Thabault: ``All other interventions--the rebuilding of
roads and schools and hospitals and communities--will not
result in a long-term sustainable improvement if people don't
have clean water. People need to support organizations that
are bringing clean water, hygiene education and sanitation to
homes and schools. That's how they can help.''
____________________