An Airdrie resident has collaborated on a new book that tells the amazing story of lives being saved by a water disinfection process that uses the sun's rays.

Fraser Edwards has worked with several charitable organizations during his career.  While working for Compassion Canada in Africa in 2004, he met Bob Dell, a water scientist from London, Ontario.  Together, in 2007, Edwards and Dell founded The Water School with a vision to provide clean water to the people of Uganda.

According to Edwards, "I was in southern Uganda in the area of Kisoro which had a terrible water problem.  Cholera was always an epidemic.  I was approached by government officials and the Church of Uganda to see if I could solve the water problem.  That's when I met my friend Bob Dell."  

Dell was looking for a way to do something significant in his retirement years and asked Edwards if he could help him in some way. He was told, "come and see," and the two travelled back to southern Uganda where Dell was exposed to the difficulties for African people to find clean water.

"You would see kids getting up early and carrying jerry cans on their heads and walking miles to find water.  As a result their schooling suffered as well as their health.  You would also see people carrying stretchers to the hospital with cholera related patients.  All of these things moved Bob.  I remember him coming down from his room in the morning with tears in his eyes saying, 'I can't get those images of these kids out of my mind.'

After returning to Canada, Dell contacted Edwards to say he was looking for a solution to the water problem in the Kisoro region.  After some research, Dell discovered the SODIS method.

SODIS stands for Solar Water Disinfection.  It's a method where impure water is placed in plastic water bottles for a day in the sun.  The ultra-violet rays of the sun then removes pathogens like e-coli and cholera from the water.  The process works within 40 degrees of either side of the equator, an area the continent of Africa just happens to be in.  

Edwards says they began a two year base line study with 24 families in the Kisoro region.  That study went by the wayside after eight months because the process was spreading like wildfire.  

"People weren't getting sick anymore and their neighbours wanted to know why," says Edwards.  

Edwards and Dell started The Water School to have Ugandans train people in that countryon the SODIS method.   Now, Edwards estimates that over a million people have benefitted from the process.

After handing the reins of The Water School over to others a few years ago Dell and Edwards decided they should document their efforts and "Waterborne: The Water School Story" was the result.

"I found out that Bob had kept a journal of every day since we started and that's proved to be the source for the material in the book, " Edwards says.  

All proceeds from the book are going to The Water School Uganda to further their programs.

Edwards and Dell are both humble about the accomplshments of The Water School in Africa.  

"It's really their (the Ugandans) show," according to Edwards, "they've done it, we've just cheered them on and provided resources along the way.  We're just so grateful that we could work with such great people."

To order "Waterborne: The Story of The Water School' click here

For information on The Water School Uganda click here  

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