VOA标准英语2009年-Clean Water Project Improves Lives in Senegal

More than 13,000 people in northern Senegal now have ready access to safe drinking water thanks to a collaborative project between the government, Columbia University, and a U.S. manufacturer of plastic pipe. The project is having a big impact on the lives of women and children who used to spend hours carrying water from wells far from home.

Gaile Ndiaye remembers well waking before dawn in search of fresh water. She and the other girls from her village set off with their buckets, often walking several miles across the sandy soil of northern Senegal.

Ndiaye says when they did find a well with water, each girl took only two buckets so there would be enough for the rest of the village. It is a routine she repeated for years in this remote area near the Mauritanian border, her hands calloused² by working the rough rope that drops down into the well's darkness.

Now her hands are smooth, and clean water flows from a tap just outside her door. More than 60 villages around the town of Leona have fresh water for drinking and non-potable water for irrigation through a project linking the Senegalese government, Columbia University, and the world's largest manufacturer of plastic pipe.

"Water, of course, is vital for life," said economist³ Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute. "If the water is not available locally, then women and children often spend many hours a day collecting water. It often means that children are not in school, they are out fetching water walking many miles in each direction to do so. The water that this community was drinking before the new water project was not safe water. It had high bacterial⁴ content. It means that the water could give rise to diarrheal diseases. It could be life threatening. Millions of children die each year from water-borne diseases," added Sachs, who serves as a special advisor⁵ to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on meeting development goals.

Columbia University and the U.N. Development Program organized this work through the Millennium⁶ Villages Project, which helps more than 400,000 people across Africa.

Sachs says the project aims to show that the poorest and most remote areas of the world can achieve development goals through community-led, targeted investments in agriculture, health, education, and infrastructure⁷, including roads, electricity, and clean water.

At Leona's market, women and children sell watermelon and bananas, groundnuts, apples, and coconut⁸. A young man carves a side of beef hanging from a hook under a wooden stall roofed with dried palm fronds⁹.

Gaile Ndiaye's mother Adama Ndiaye says the water project is revitalizing small-scale agriculture as more women are preparing vegetable gardens to feed their families and sell their surplus at market.

She says many young people left their village when the wells dried-up and the daily walk for water grew longer and longer. The water then was moldy¹⁰ and red, she says. Those were extremely difficult times but those days are now behind them. Ndiaye says there is an opportunity for many of those who left to come back, knowing there is a reliable supply of water for crops and livestock¹¹.

In addition to 81 new public taps there are eleven new animal troughs for cattle and goats. The villagers pay a small fee to maintain the water towers built by Senegal's government. For an additional charge, they can have the water piped straight to their house.

It's part of a public-private partnership¹² that laid more than 100 kilometers of pipe in trenches¹³ dug by hand by village labor¹.

"I think as a human being, we are responsible to help others," said Walter Wang, whose JM Eagle Company donated nearly $1 million worth of plastic pipe and employed two full-time¹⁴ engineers as part of what he says is a corporate¹⁵ obligation to make the world a better place. "Really a strong philosophy, a fundamental philosophy in our company is really not about profitability. We believe that profit comes in line with doing something else for others. Our ultimate goal is really to do something to help the world, and we believe very strongly that profit comes as long as we work toward that goal. Profit comes naturally."

Wang's company is working with the Millennium Villages Project to build similar water systems in Mali, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda with the goal of bringing accessible, clean water to more than 100,000 people.

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 calloused   

adj.粗糙的，粗硬的，起老茧的v.（使）硬结，（使）起茧( callous的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）冷酷无情

参考例句：

• A most practical and emotionally calloused Youth interrupted. 一个非常讲究实际而心肠很硬的年轻人插了一嘴。 来自辞典例句
• McTeague exhibited his hard, calloused palms. 麦克梯格摊开那双生满老茧坚硬的手掌。 来自辞典例句

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

5 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

6 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 coconut   

n.椰子

参考例句：

• The husk of this coconut is particularly strong.椰子的外壳很明显非常坚固。
• The falling coconut gave him a terrific bang on the head.那只掉下的椰子砰地击中他的脑袋。

9 fronds   

n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You can pleat palm fronds to make huts, umbrellas and baskets. 人们可以把棕榈叶折叠起来盖棚屋，制伞，编篮子。 来自百科语句
• When these breezes reached the platform the palm-fronds would whisper. 微风吹到平台时，棕榈叶片发出簌簌的低吟。 来自辞典例句

10 moldy   

adj.发霉的

参考例句：

• She chucked the moldy potatoes in the dustbin.她把发霉的土豆扔进垃圾箱。
• Oranges can be kept for a long time without going moldy.橙子可以存放很长时间而不腐烂。

11 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

12 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

13 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

14 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

15 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。