Water Initiatives
Clean Water
The shortage of clean water claims more than 3 million lives every year; nearly 3,100 children die every day from water-related illnesses. Malnutrition and inadequate hygiene contribute to the illnesses and deaths; and women and girls are often denied access to education and economic opportunities because they must spend hours of each day fetching water. In many places, it’s not because there is no available source of water – it’s because there is no simple way to reach it.
Saves Lives
Our partners work with local communities in several countries training local leaders on the maintenance & upkeep of the local clean water solutions. The local community is trained on WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) techniques to ensure the clean water is not compromised during collection or use. Clean water alleviates many illnesses which allows children to remain in school and gives adults the ability to work to provide for their family.
Malawi
Clean water wells (boreholes) cost approximately $5,000 in Malawi. Villages are chosen by our partners in Malawi based upon need and their willingness to contribute to the creation of the borehole as well as its long-term maintenance.
As part of the community’s contribution, they must donate 25,000 Kwacha (approx. $17), make bricks, collect sand and rocks for the borehole apron, serve the drillers lunch, and create a water committee. The $17 fee goes into the water committee’s fund for future upkeep and repairs. Several committee members are trained by the driller on borehole maintenance and repair. Other committee members will continue collecting a very small fee from the villagers to add to the maintenance/repair fund. These boreholes are deeper than the many shallow water wells found around Malawi and if maintained properly, can provide clean water for decades.
Thanks to the generosity of donors, we have built over 203 boreholes in Malawi. Our local partner, Blue Water Drilling, determines the drilling location in the vetted villages with the local chief and then installs the borehole and the pump. After completion, the health team with the Methodist Church of Malawi returns to the village to ensure they know how to maintain and repair the borehole as well as offer WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) training. WASH training includes proper hand washing practices, ensuring containers are properly cleaned, how to make a tippy-tap (hands-free handwashing station), how to build a household latrine, and many other topics.
Click the image above to learn more about our partner bringing clean water to Haiti
Haiti
Resurrection has been partnering with private donors and other non-profits matching dollar for dollar to bring clean water to the communities where we serve in the Petit-Goâve region of Haiti. Clean water in Haiti is harder to achieve because you can’t solve the contaminated water problem solely by drilling. Once you’ve drilled to access water, you use reverse osmosis to purify the water from contaminants, salt, and strange flavors. Clean water systems in Haiti currently cost approximately $25,000 which includes the drilling, equipment, kiosk, training, and follow up.
Four communities are currently benefitting from clean water where we partner. We work with Haitian CHE (Community Health Evangelism) leaders to identify communities that need clean water and will donate land for the kiosk. There is a small fee recipients pay for the water and these fees cover the salary for the worker that sells water and maintains the equipment as well as any replacement parts needed.
Once the water system is in place, the community hosts a dedication and health fair. The health fair not only includes WASH training, but also proper nutrition and the importance of a balanced diet.
Uganda
Clean water boreholes in Uganda cost approximately $5,000. Our partners at Uganda Counseling & Support Services (UCSS) work with the community (similarly to the Methodist Church in Malawi) to create a borehole maintenance fund: 252,280 Shillings (approx. $70), feed the drillers, make the bricks, and collect the sand to ensure community ownership of the borehole. The community is trained on maintenance, hygiene, and sanitation after the borehole is drilled and built.
UCSS currently has a waiting list of communities that currently obtain water from dirty sources – sometimes ponds shared with animals, other times shallow hand-dug wells that dry up in the dry season and they often walk several kilometers to access the dirty water. Your gift will give the gift of health to some of the most vulnerable families around the world.
