Monica S

I was also surprised at Sophia’s daily wage. It seems that that wouldn’t be enough to support a family of 8. I come from big family too, and 75 cents wouldn’t even be close to enough. It also surprises me that someone thought to put a plastic bottle full of water in the sun.

Monica S

Fadi Jilo and the other women in Dillo could be spending their time doing many things if they didn’t have to go get water. They could improve their homes, get a job, go to school (for the teens), and develop new talents.

Stella P

Something that surprised me is that Sophia only makes 75 cents a day on average and in America 75 cents a day is unimaginable. In America a kid might get 75 cents for raking leaves. Another thing that surprised me was that these people have to leave their water out in the sun before they [...]

Talor C

Fadi Jilo and the other women could be doing many other things if they did not have to go on daily water walks. They could go to school and get an education. By going to school they could get a better job that paid more money. The money could be used to buy more water. [...]

Moses K

It’s obvious we won’t run out of water for a while. We can keep the water running for 15 minutes, and no one would really care, because we have so much!

Kelly N

My family doesn’t really do anything to make sure that our water is clean because we don’t need to. There are complicated water cleaning processes that clean our water before it even comes to us. We can also buy water bottles at the store which are already clean enough to drink.

Hannah K

I was surprised that just water bottles and the sun can purify water. I think we take our very clean water straight from the tap for granted.

Samantha C.

Some people call the river near our city the Muddy Mississippi and it is known for being pretty dirty. The Mississippi River is what we get our tap water from. We don’t clean the water ourselves, it gets purified for us though. Even though it is ‘dirty’ water by the time we drink it it [...]

Lonita B.

There lives would have changed dramatically if they did not have to travel so far for water each day. One thing that they could have done would be to give their children an education. Another thing that may have changed would be their food situation. If they had enough water they could water crops and [...]

Lonita B.

I would describe the water situation as great! We constantly have running tap water, we can take showers for as long as we want, and water is available in any place that you go. Most homes have at least 4 appliances in which to use water. Besides that the water is always clean so we [...]

Gus K.

Would it be possible to set up a sort of community water purifying plant based on Sodis? People would still have to get the water, but a larger amount could be purified.

Emma A

If people put water bottles on their roofs to purify them don’t other people steal them? It would seem to me that a lot of rivalry would go on in the community, is there? Is there some way we can get the community to work together to get water so that there would [...]

David G

I’m curious how exactly do the UV rays purify the water. How does the plastic containers help? Could there be a more effective way of cheap water purification?

Brody S.

Is Ksh50 (75 cents) an average amount of money earned in a day, a lot of money, or not much at all compared to other residents of Kibera. And how much would someone in the cities make each day compared to the people in Kibera?

Brody S.

If there are other water sources around this area, could some other groups step in and help make pipelines to carry the water from these places to Dillo? If there aren’t any other water sources nearby, could groups from other countries help build a small plant or way of filtering the water that is polluted [...]

Ernest W

Hi Rose, I grew up in Kenya using a hand-dug pit latrine. We didn’t have enough money or water to manage a toilet. I used a flush toilet for the first time when I went to a boarding high school. Digging pit latrines in my village was always a communal exercise. Every home [...]

Caroline O

Hi Rose,
I was intrigued by your statistic on how many people in the U.S. don’t have access to an indoor toilet. How were you able to find this statistic? Are these people geographically spread out, or are they concentrated in one region of the country?

Brian M

Is human waste and water sanitation more “taboo” in the developing world than it is in the United States? What can we do to overcome this taboo and have frank discussions about water sanitation?

Janeen H

Which countries have started to take the initial steps to either create or improve sewage/sanitation infrastructure as well as increase the proportion of toilets to humans? Are they receiving any international aid or having to go at it alone?

Bridget O

Hi Rose,
I love that the perspective of your book is making this not-so-pleasant issue fun and approachable to create a dialogue. Do you have any suggestions of how to do so on a college campus?

India’s Yamuna River

To Purify Tap Water

Testing Sanitation

How much water we use

Obama on Water

Water in the Media and Politics

Water in the Bible

My question on Water

Natalie M’s question on water

Water wars question 2