USA (MNN) — A bill to help 884 million people needs your help to move forward.
In U.S. President Barack Obama's inaugural address, he said, "Let clean waters flow." From that was born the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009.
Living Water International reports that the bill is not getting the attention it needs, however. There are currently five co-sponsors of the bill, but it needs at least 20 to move forward.
In his speech, Obama said, "To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you…to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds." There are 884 million people
without clean water worldwide and 2.5 billion without proper sanitation. The proposal for the bills says that unclean water and poor sanitation together create the leading cause of child mortality.
The proposal goes on to say, "That such conditions continue to exist demonstrates a failure on the part of all nations to provide access to the most basic life-sustaining element: clean water."
To combat this, the bill suggests global cooperation on research, technical assistance, seed money for starting up clean water systems, and strengthening the USAID and State Department to implement those systems. It will provide momentum for reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of increasing access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.
Living Water wants you to move this bill forward by contacting your state senator directly. A link is provided on their Web site. You can also sign a petition of support. They have reached just over 102,000 signatures in their third new goal of 150,000 signatures. CLICK HERE.
Pray that this bill will move forward so that ministries like Living Water might get the chance to expand their work in clean water provision and share God's love worldwide.
