The process is simple. You cut off the top of an empty milk jug and then punch holes on two opposite sides, near the top. Next you thread a broomstick through the holes—that's your handle. You take a walk to the nearest stream, pond, creek, lake, or spring. You pick a spot that looks clean. You dunk your container until it's full. That's all you need. Now drink up.
Water, in parts of the world, is available in the next room: clean, drinkable, from a faucet. But on a global scale, water has reached a level of crisis. One in every six people is without access to safe drinking water, and billions of the world's poorest lack adequate sanitation, often collecting water from sites contaminated by runoff and sewage. As a result, still other statistics are staggering: water-borne diseases are the leading cause of death globally for children under the age of five, and half the patients in the world's hospitals are suffering from diseases related to water.
Action steps in the global dialogue on water are interconnected with other issues, including poverty, health, education, conservation, pollution, and international policy. We'll begin in the summer of 2008 to wrestle with these issues in an effort to discover our place of response—come fall, be expecting specific opportunities to engage this initiative as a way of serving in the world.
Our efforts with water are currently taking place in:
Rwanda Water Trip – September 8-20, 2008
Ten individuals from our Water Team will be going on a two-week trip to Masaka, Rwanda, to build rainwater harvest systems and bio-sand filters. Hosted by World Relief, this trip will be partnering with the local church to help improve the community's water.