Jay-Z and the Water for Life Campaign
by Catherine LaineNovember 29th, 2006
In my picks for last week’s Top 10 blog posts, I mentioned that rapper Jay Z was getting involved with the UN Water for Life Campaign.
Check out out video from his recent trips to Luanda, Angola and Durban, South Africa. Note: The video player on the MTV site works best in IE.
One thing that the videos show that is very striking is just how long water collection takes. In many countries, water (and firewood for that matter) collection are women’s work. The young Angolan girl interviewed spends four hours a day - between 6am and 10am - fetching water. Access to nearby clean water sources would not only reduce disease rates, but would also free up time that could be used for other purposes like school, work or just plain old play.
The other thing I appreciated was JayZ’s realization that all the bombast and bluster from rappers about being from the hood was absurd in the face of far greater hardship. “We’re not from the hood, by no means,” he says, “not even close”.
November 30th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
You might be interested to know that Dean Kamen is also now involved in clean water technolgies, report from Boston Herald today:
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=169806
Great to see so many others (Jay Z, Kamen, etc.) using their ability in this arena.
November 30th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
Thanks for that. I hadn’t heard about the water project in Honduras.
Here is another story about it.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/science_news/4200569.html
“Though it contains no degradable membranes or other parts that would have to be routinely replaced, the unit does require electricity—about a third the power of a handheld hair dryer.”
Nice. I’m not sure how expensive I think a final cost of $2000 is though. One machine gives enough water for 100 people a day, but if you scale that up to a village of 1,000 that $20,000. I must consult the Google Oracle and the Pete for more info.
I’ve been meaning to write about his biodigester/generator setup. Thanks for reminding me.
August 13th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Musch Props to Jay-z, the Greatest Rapper alive.
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