Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation Announces Initiative To Solve Water Scarcity Problems In Burundi.
Beyoncé and her foundation BeyGOOD announced a new initiative at the Essence Festival in New Orleans on Friday morning.
The artist’s organization is teaming with UNICEF to help raise money to help bring more clean water to citizens of Burundi.
There are also two limited edition shirts for sale, the sales of which will benefit UNICEF’s support of Burundi.
A post on Beyoncé’s website explains the new charitable effort.
"Burundi is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa with nearly half of the population lacking access to clean, safe drinking water," it says.
"With your help, nearly half a million people will gain access to safe water, as BEYGOOD4BURUNDI and UNICEF will support building water supply systems for healthcare facilities and schools, and the drilling of boreholes, wells and springs to bring safe water to districts."
During the Formation World Tour in 2016, Beyoncé used the umbrella organization to partner with United Way and charities at the local level during her tour stops.
In February of last year, BeyGOOD also said that it would help out relief efforts in Flint Michigan’s water crisis.

But in those same 15 years, it’s expected that 40 out of the 50 states in the United States will experience drought and some of those will also be considered extreme.
Our planet’s surface is made up of mostly water, where 70% of it is considered ocean.
The water found in the world’s oceans is salt water and can’t be used for drinking or agriculture, as well as many other things that we use water for.
Despite being a part of one of the richest countries in the world, California is now in its fourth year of severe drought, with current reservoirs expected to last only a few years.
Things We Can Do So how do we solve this problem?
First, we all need to recognize that access to drinking water is a right that all people should have.
Additionally, we need to all recognize that this is a growing issue and one that will quickly become one of the most pressing in the near future.
Desalination now provides 80% of the drinking water used by the country where as recent as 2004 Israel relied on rainwater and aquifers entirely.
By watering the roots of only the plants you want to grow, you can also reduce the number of weeds that grow in your crops as well.
Becoming an Expert Drought is expected to be a major issue with many countries of the world in the years to come and it’s important to have people with the knowledge to continue to solve these problems.

Beyonce’s BeyGOOD Foundation Announces Clean Water Initiative To Benefit The Children Of Burundi At ESSENCE Festival.
The lack of access to clean drinking water is a widespread crisis that affects millions of people everyday.
Known as the “Heart of Africa,” Burundi is home to a population where nearly half of the residents have no access to safe, clean water.
Together with UNICEF and through her BeyGOOD Foundation, global entertainment powerhouse Beyonce is taking a major step towards improving water conditions in Burundi through a brand new initiative titled BEYGOOD4Burundi.
Announced on Friday morning on the 2017 ESSENCE Festival centerstage, the first phase of the partnership includes the construction of new wells equipped with hand pumps, hygiene education and the improvement of water and sanitation facilities in schools in four priority regions, including Bukemba and Giharo in Rutana Province and Kinyinya and Nyabitsinda in Ruyigui Province.
In these rural communities, children are chronically malnourished and more than 65 percent of the population is using unsafe water sources.
Children and families have to walk long distances to water collection points, and even then the water access rate is extremely low.
"BEYGOOD4BURUNDI is a continuation of the work that Beyoncé, her family and Parkwood Entertainment are doing to address water crises around the world, including right here in the state of Louisiana and in Michigan,” said Ivy McGregor, ‎Director of Philanthropy and Corporate Relations at Parkwood Entertainment, who traveled to Burundi earlier this year.
“In Burundi I saw myself, my sisters and my mother in the strength of the women and young sisters traveling miles to carry water for their families.
“Addressing the global water crisis is one of the defining challenges of our time, and the children of Burundi are among the most vulnerable,” Stern said.

Self-Help Women’s Groups in India help change behavior around diets and toilet use to improve health.
She recently was able to take out a bank loan of INR 12,000 (US$180), which she used to construct a toilet in her family home It was the Self-Help Group (SHG) in her village that persuaded Sushila of the importance of sanitation for her children’s health and nutrition, and helped her get the loan she needed.
The project is working through SHGs to deliver awareness, training, finance, and monitoring on sanitation and nutrition in an integrated manner.
It has the highest rural population density in India and a per capita income barely half of the national average.
A third of its population lives below the poverty line, and more than two-thirds of rural households do not have access to individual toilets.
With a growing body of research linking open defecation to disease and child malnutrition, it is not surprising that the prevalence of stunting in children under the age of five in Bihar is a staggering 49 percent, much higher than the national average of 38 percent.
The Bihar Transformative Development Projects is using SHGs to address these issues and reach women at an unprecedented scale.
Project staff is trained to scale up this initiative across Bihar, and the lessons learnt, guidelines, and toolkits are used to scale up across rural livelihood projects in other states, such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Maharashtra.
First, a comprehensive package of behavior change communications on sanitation and nutrition practices is delivered across a village.
Village federations lead post-construction monitoring through regular visits to these households, while messages around the health linkages between nutrition, hygiene, and sanitation continue to be delivered through SHGs.

Charles Stobie’s cows have figured out how to pump their own water (4 photos, video).
“Most people have never heard of them,” said Kensington Conservancy land stewardship coordinator Carter Dorscht.
Just up the creek along Highway 17 sits the farm of Charles Stobie, whose cows for years have been bathing and drinking out of the creek.
Stobie’s farm might be familiar to travellers — it’s the one with the large rock formation in front of it five minutes east past Desbarats.
Both of these issues were contributing to the degradation of the wetlands area less than a kilometer downstream.
They were able to fence the creek off but, the problem was, how would Stobie’s cows still get access to drinking water?
The solution came in the form of nose pumps, which they had heard of by way of conservation projects happening on Manitoulin Island.
Although the two they installed on Stobie’s farm are unheated seasonal pumps, it’s also possible to have solar powered heated ones that can withstand the winter.
They even come with a small-sized dish on the side so calves can access water.
Before the pump and fence, his cows would sometimes try and cross to the farmlands on the other side of the creek by walking through the mud.

On Thursday, the Iraqi ministry of defense announced that Daesh had been driven out of all districts of the city of Mosul, ending an anti-terror operation that began last October.
Iraqi government troops have liberated the area around the ruined Great Mosque of al-Nuri, which was constructed in 1172.
"The humanitarian community has really launched a robust response to deal with 700,000 people that were displaced by the fighting.
However, there has been so much destruction, particularly in West Mosul, including entire neighborhoods, that it’s going to be a very long time before many of the residents can go home.
Many residents have fled those areas of the city, but even in areas under government control there are shortages of food and water, Wille said.
"The East of Mosul, which was fully retaken by January, has seen most residents return – that was the part of the city that saw very little destruction during the course of the fighting."
But obviously, they are not going back to those neighborhoods where the heaviest fighting is ongoing, or where the destruction has been the most significant," Wille said.
"We’re seeing thousands of men and boys being picked up because their names appear on this list and then they’re held in inhumane conditions.
We’ve seen rampant torture of these men and boys and in some cases execution."
The US-led coalition and the Iraqi government should be just as concerned with the "political battle" in Mosul as they are with the military battle, Wille said.

Beyonce’s BeyGOOD Foundation Announces Clean Water Initiative To Benefit The Children Of Burundi At ESSENCE Festival.
The lack of access to clean drinking water is a widespread crisis that affects millions of people everyday.
Known as the “Heart of Africa,” Burundi is home to a population where nearly half of the residents have no access to safe, clean water.
Together with UNICEF and through her BeyGOOD Foundation, global entertainment powerhouse Beyonce is taking a major step towards improving water conditions in Burundi through a brand new initiative titled BEYGOOD4Burundi.
Announced on Friday morning on the 2017 ESSENCE Festival centerstage, the first phase of the partnership includes the construction of new wells equipped with hand pumps, hygiene education and the improvement of water and sanitation facilities in schools in four priority regions, including Bukemba and Giharo in Rutana Province and Kinyinya and Nyabitsinda in Ruyigui Province.
In these rural communities, children are chronically malnourished and more than 65 percent of the population is using unsafe water sources.
Children and families have to walk long distances to water collection points, and even then the water access rate is extremely low.
"BEYGOOD4BURUNDI is a continuation of the work that Beyoncé, her family and Parkwood Entertainment are doing to address water crises around the world, including right here in the state of Louisiana and in Michigan,” said Ivy McGregor, ‎Director of Philanthropy and Corporate Relations at Parkwood Entertainment, who traveled to Burundi earlier this year.
“In Burundi I saw myself, my sisters and my mother in the strength of the women and young sisters traveling miles to carry water for their families.
“Addressing the global water crisis is one of the defining challenges of our time, and the children of Burundi are among the most vulnerable,” Stern said.

All residents deserve safe drinking water.
Access to clean water is often taken for granted in our country.
However, the Flint water crisis has shown us that even here in the United States of America, in 2017, there is no guarantee of clean, safe drinking water.
It shouldn’t be this way, but it’s happening in our country – and it’s happening right here in Wisconsin.
Most residents of Kewaunee County in northern Wisconsin get their water from wells.
Because both the animals they house and the spreading of liquid manure as a fertilizer, the groundwater from CAFOs contaminates residential wells and has led to one-third of wells in Kewaunee County being declared unsafe to use for drinking water because of high levels of fecal matter.
Recently, in the Assembly Committee on Environment and Forestry, we had a public hearing regarding Assembly Bill 226, which would permit local governments to take steps to remedy a contaminated well.
Assembly Bill 226 is a Band-Aid and not a cure.
We need to take a look at the underlying reasons that groundwater gets contaminated and look for real solutions, such as proper manure irrigation for areas with thin topsoil.
Rep. Gary Hebl represents the 46th Assembly District, which includes the cities of Sun Prairie and Stoughton, the village of Cottage Grove, and the towns of Cottage Grove, Dunkirk, Pleasant Springs and Sun Prairie.

Relying on large, centralised programmes such as Swachh Bharat Mission and National Rural Drinking Water Programme to provide universal access to basic necessities would require 30-40% more government spending than current levels over the next 15 years, an analysis by Dalberg, a global strategy and policy advisory firm focused on social impact, shows.
The scale of the problem Millions in India lack access to basic utilities.
Water Aid estimates that 63.4 million Indians live without access to safe drinking water, more than in any other country of the world.
For instance, a Dalberg analysis of government spending on water and sanitation indicates a financing shortfall of 30-40% until 2030 if the government continues to spend as it is doing currently.
Further, given the constraints of government institutions combined with an expanding population, more than half a billion Indians are likely to still lack access to safe water, electricity, and sanitation services by 2030.
How decentralisation can help Decentralised solutions can complement centralised utility services–where government systems currently do not exist, they can be the primary service providers; in areas where government services exist but do not perform at desired levels, decentralised systems can be last-mile service delivery providers.
For example, social businesses that operate water kiosks are bringing safe water to communities that lack access to centralised water pipelines.
Water purification businesses offer solutions where government pipelines exist but water is not potable.
For example, Dalberg analysis of primary data collected from seven water-kiosk enterprises across Asia, Africa and Latin America shows that water kiosks require less than 50% of the funding needed to bring safe water to currently underserved households in the conventional manner, which entails laying water distribution pipelines, treatment systems, and connection costs to private/public taps.
Ecosystem-level challenges However, private sector efforts face several ecosystem-level challenges that increase business risk and make it difficult to scale delivery.

FOUNTAIN — U.S. Air Force contractors on Thursday delivered the first of two $400,000 carbon filters designed to strip away two perfluorinated chemicals contaminating city water supply wells.
Fountain ranks among the most-populated sites around the country and in Korea where the granular-activated-carbon filters are being installed as the Air Force investigates perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, spreading from bases, including Peterson Air Force Base east of Colorado Springs.
PFCs have been linked to health harm — low birth rates, and kidney and testicular cancers — but public health epidemiological work in Colorado hasn’t been done.
“We’re a public water system making sure we meet the regulations, even the health-advisory level.
Fountain shifted city supplies to surface water sources after contamination was detected last year at levels above the EPA limit of 70 parts per trillion.
But nearly 80,000 people in Fountain, Security and Widefield, as well as other communities south of Colorado Springs, long have relied on groundwater as a primary source of drinking water.
Air Force engineers currently are focused on removing PFOA and PFOS.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials regard PFOA, PFOS and PFHpA as chemicals of concern but say there’s not enough scientific data on other PFCs, such as PFHxS.
The effectiveness of carbon filters removing PFCs from contaminated water depends on how frequently the carbon is changed, Colorado School of Mines environmental engineer Chris Higgins said.
“It will depend on how often we have to use it to meet peak demand.” Water restrictions last summer reduced water use so that surface water sources met most of the demand.