One and a half billion people on the planet are denied access to safe drinking water. What feels like a given for most of us is out of reach for so many. And it has deadly consequences. In Argentina, 4.5 million people are affected by this scarcity. But there is a doctor who’s getting to the source of the issue.
After completing his studies overseas, Nicolás Wertheimer returned to his home country and began practising medicine. His consultations were flooded with kids presenting with similar symptoms. “When I became a doctor, it opened my eyes to waterborne illnesses in rural communities,” he says. Diarrhoea is chief among them, killing over 2 000 children a day worldwide. This is more than measles, malaria, and AIDS combined. “My mission is not to treat, but rather to prevent,” Wertheimer says. “No child should be dying due to a lack of clean water.”
The doctor pivoted from medicine and founded a social enterprise to tackle the causes of waterborne diseases. Proyecto Agua Segura – or the Safe Water Project – empowers and educates school communities and families in six South American countries. Through the Safe Water Project, Wertheimer partners with government policymakers and local authorities to improve sanitation infrastructure. He also teaches children about hygiene practices and environmentalism, stirring an interest in the younger generation to protect the future of water. To Wertheimer, this is imperative. “The water isn’t the problem, it is the environment,” he says. “Man-made actions that affect the climate, affect the water.” In Argentina, soil degradation from mass commercial crops and fracking are major impediments to people’s right to clean water.
In the face of this, the Safe Water Project has supplied over 150 million litres of water to communities in need. Through a partnership with LifeStraw, a filtration systems organisation from the United States, they distribute purifiers to vulnerable sites across the initiative’s territory. The sizeable tanks are durable and easy to use. Through their filtering system, they remove dirt, microplastics, viruses, bacteria, and parasites from water. The purifiers are able to produce over 98 000 litres of clean water before the filter needs to be replaced. That amounts to enough water for about 100 people for up to five years.
“Clean water and sanitation is a basic human right, not a privilege,” Wertheimer says. Thanks to his perseverance, more than 4 000 families can now drink water without fear. “It’s amazing to see someone drink clean water for the first time,” Wertheimer says. “Equal water rights begin with us as individuals, one drop at a time.”
Footage by Juan Francisco Otaño, Huellas, and Proyecto Agua Segura was used in the creation of this film.
