For Water in Beijing and Darfur, Political Will Is Everything

One of the crowning glories of the Beijing skyline is the new National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube. Not only is it a sight to behold, it is also an environmental marvel. Its outer "membrane" captures and recycles thousands of gallons of rainwater. Given Beijing's record of drought, this is critical. In fact, over the last 50 years, annual rainfall in Beijing has decreased by 50 percent.

Where there is a will there is a way...

Inside the Water Cube we see athletes "going for the gold" in a deep pool of blue. The average Olympic-sized swimming pool holds 660,625 gallons of water, but the Water Cube's holds over 792,000 gallons. The collection of this water — this precious resource — in one building, for this purpose, is truly a marvel.

Where there is a will there is a way...

Thousands of miles away, in Darfur, many people living in camps must survive on as little as half a gallon of water per day. This is happening even though the World Health Organization has declared that a minimum of 6.6 gallons per person per day is needed to meet basic human needs.

Where there is a will there is a way...

Not only is the amount of water available inside many camps astonishingly low, but the process of collecting the resource is extraordinarily dangerous.

Amina's story is not unlike stories of other women in Darfur. She lives in a camp in north Darfur where water collection is always a dangerous process. There is water in the camp; but of the ten water pumps, only four work with any regularity. This means that many women must go outside their camps to get water for their families, sometimes walking up to two miles.

This is a very dangerous task because women are subject to attack by armed men each time that they leave their camp.

Amina tries to make the water last, but she still needs to leave her camp three times a week to collect it. Because Amina is pregnant, she is worried about losing her baby from the stress and physical toll of making the trek for water. She has a 12-year-old daughter who has offered to go in her place, but Amina is worried about her daughter being attacked and raped when she leaves the camp. Who should go? How should they decide?

Where there is a will there is a way...

Recently, the "discovery" of one of the largest freshwater resources in the world — the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer — in the Darfur region was announced, even though scientists have known about it for years. According to some experts, it encompasses 53 percent of Darfur. It would cost roughly $40,000 per borehole, and well, to connect 20,000 Darfurians to water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer.

Where there is a will there is a way...

The amount of water in the National Aquatics Center pool where Michael Phelps won his eight gold medals is equivalent to the minimum amount of water needed for 7,500 women and girls in Darfur for the duration of the Olympic Games.

China spent $200 million to build the Water Cube.

It would cost approximately $4.2 million to provide a reliable source of water for all 2.1 million internally displaced people in Darfur by tapping into the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer.

Where is the will to ensure that those living in camps have access to the water they need to survive?