[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 528]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1915
                     KILLER DRINKING WATER--AFRICA

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, as the Sun rises each morning in 
Africa, Angelina gathers water for her family. But the community water 
well in Muyayano, Malawi, is broken most every day. So she and other 
women like her are forced to go 10 miles to fetch water from a polluted 
river, water that is bacterially infested with waste, parasites, and 
other insects.
  Going to the smelly river is physically hard. But it is also 
emotionally hard because Angelina's 2-year-old daughter got sick and 
died from the bug-infested river water, a girl similar to this one. But 
Angelina goes to the river because she has no other option.
  Every 21 seconds, a child dies from water-related diseases. By the 
time I finish talking, three children will die. This ought not to be.
  Representative Blumenauer and I have introduced the Water for the 
World Act. This will make U.S. water aid more efficient, and it will be 
more coordinated. We have it within our power to fix this tragedy so 
that mothers in Africa don't lose their daughters to polluted drinking 
water.
  And that's just the way it is.

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