Bad Water, Good Water, And A World Of Help

Parched as we have been this summer with our brown lawns, wilted flower beds, and depleted watercourses, the surreality of the slow draining of New Orleans is almost beyond our comprehension. When we discovered this week that there are victims of Hurricane Katrina from Louisiana living among us now, we wanted to interview them to help us understand what had happened. But who can adequately articulate or explain the shock and disorientation of trying to carry on with an uprooted life among strangers 1,400 miles from a home terminally inflected with toxic muck and mold in a community of people now scattered and lost to each other? Yet hearing them struggle to tell their inherently untellable stories brought home the human toll of this disaster.

A lot went wrong two weeks ago, both meteorologically and bureaucratically, and setting things right again will require the kind of clear skies and clear thinking that were in such short supply when this disaster struck. We cannot control the weather, but we can control our thinking if we are serious about it. And we have noticed that there are plenty of straight-thinking people ready to roll up their sleeves and do what it takes to alleviate the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina — and they are mostly volunteers.

From the most intimate generosity of families taking in other families to the broad sweep of services offered to displaced persons by the volunteers of the American Red Cross, ordinary people are doing what they can. Last week, The Bee ran a story about the quick and sincere community response to call for help from relief agencies. Thousands of dollars were raised, much of it by kids selling lemonade and cookies. This week, we offer yet another story of an organization in Newtown with the know-how and willingness to bring a critical commodity to the contaminated communities of the Gulf Coast — clean water.

The World Help Foundation (WHF) has undertaken 128 water purification projects around the world since it was founded in 1991, providing potable water in drought- and disaster-stricken areas in Central America and Africa. After last December’s tsunami off the coast of Indonesia, WHF provided temporary water purification facilities to communities in desperate need. Like any other charitable organization, however, WHF depends on donations to carry out its important work. The founders of the organization were Newtown Rotarians, and the local club has done an incredible job over the years of keeping the money and the clean water flowing through its support of WHF.

So imagine the frustration and anguish at the WHF and among local Rotarians when Katrina dealt such a devastating blow to our own country at a time when monetary support for the foundation has slowed to a trickle. It could not respond. It could not even proceed with existing plans for needed water purification projects in Africa and Indonesia. This spring it lost its headquarters when its donated office space in the former Newtown Manufacturing building on South Main Street was sold.

The World Help Foundation is a credit to Newtown. We believe people everywhere should support its work, but we especially believe it deserves the continuing support of the people of Newtown. When we meet victims of unfathomable disaster, we want to tell them not only that we want to help, but that we are already doing something to help. Tax-deductible donations may be sent to: World Help Foundation, PO Box 500, Danbury CT 06810.