Dying of Thirst: The Global Pure Water Crisis (#3 by Gospel for Asia)

March 25, 2019 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report #1 – Discussing the world’s quest for access to pure water that is safe to drink.

India: Success and Challenge

In recent decades, India has emerged as a global economic powerhouse. It is now the seventh-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product (GDP)^[27] and at least the fourth largest in purchasing power parity.^[1] Much of this success stems from the technology field, India’s fastest-growing sector. Information technology, process outsourcing and software services are among the country’s booming industries.

India is suffering the worst water crisis in its history.

But success is accompanied by great challenges. India is home to about 1.34 billion people and is still growing. Its population, now the world’s second largest,^[2] is projected to overtake China’s as early as 2024.^[3] This has placed unprecedented stress on the country’s water resources, which are already stretched to meet the needs of a growing population.

In June 2018, the Indian think tank NITI Aayog released a comprehensive report on India’s water status. Among its conclusions:

India is suffering the worst water crisis in its history.^[4]
200,000 Indians die each year from lack of clean water.^[5]
600 million Indians face high-to-extreme water stress.^[6]
By 2020, 21 cities could completely run out of groundwater.^[7]
By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the supply.^[8]

The booming cities have borne a large portion of India’s water stress. Bangalore, known by some as India’s Silicon Valley, is a good example. The city’s needs were once met by wells that reached 300 feet deep. But now, 400 bore wells must go down as far as 1,500 feet to find water. How long will that suffice? No one knows.

Jesus Well provides safe, pure water to many families - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — In this remote village, a Jesus Well provides safe, pure water to many families. Each Jesus Well serves an average of 300 people for about 20 years, and the wells may be drilled up to 600 feet deep, providing pure water in even the worst droughts.

In the countryside, the challenges are different but just as dire. Agriculture uses some 80 percent of India’s water.^[9] When water is unavailable, the farmers feel it immediately. They can quickly lose their livelihoods.

Meanwhile, millions of Indians have no reliable access to water at all.

Much of India is arid or semi-arid. Vast areas receive rain only sporadically from storms brought by the summer monsoons. Many people collect their water from surface sources, which are often contaminated. The daily trek to a local pond is a regular feature of life for many rural Indians. They may walk for hours just to obtain their day’s supply of water. That leaves little time to work productively or improve their lives.

For years, Gospel for Asia (GFA) has been helping to equip national workers to get wells installed in needy communities. They’re called Jesus Wells and are fitted with a plaque sharing Christ’s words to the Samaritan woman:

“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13–14).

Israel: A Glimpse into the Future

While discussions of global water issues typically focus on the problems, it’s also helpful to consider the success stories. One of those is the tiny state of Israel.

After World War I, the territory of Palestine came under the control of the United Kingdom. As the British government was considering what to do with this important strip of land, its economists concluded that the area’s water resources could only support about 2 million people.^[10] There were slightly more than 800,000 residents there at the time. But after the modern state of Israel was created in 1948, that number nearly doubled in just three years—and kept climbing.^[11] Today, Israel is home to more than 8 million people,^[12] with another 2.8 million in the West Bank^[13] and 1.8 million in the Gaza Strip.^[14]

Clearly, a drastic program was needed to meet the water demands of this booming population. Through the efforts of visionaries such as water engineer Simcha Blass, Israel not only met this challenge but became an exporter of water technology, water-intensive crops—and water itself. The story of that success can serve as a model and inspiration for other countries.

Israel points the way to a future free from water insecurity.

Simcha Blass, an Israeli visionary in the clean water field - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Simcha Blass, an Israeli visionary in the clean water field. Photo by Ybact on Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0

Israel’s leaders realized that all those new immigrants would need to eat, so food production became an urgent priority. The Negev in the south of Israel was a vast dry desert where few people lived. But Simcha Blass was convinced there was water underground that could be accessed through deep drilling. He was right. That was the beginning of an agricultural boom in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments. Some people saw it as a fulfillment of the prophecy in the book of Isaiah: “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom” (Isaiah 35:1 niv).

Blass also envisioned pipelines that would stretch from the water-rich north of Israel to the south where water was most needed. Through years of effort, his visions became reality.

Israel’s visionaries then turned their sights to the world’s most abundant water source—the oceans. The idea of processing seawater for drinking and agriculture has long been an elusive dream for people around the world. Israeli scientists experimented with several desalination techniques, most of which proved too costly to be practical. But with perseverance, Israel developed a system which, though still expensive, provides an important supplement to its other water sources. Israel now has several functioning desalination plants on its Mediterranean coast, which provide an astonishing 27 percent of the country’s water.^[15] Most importantly, the desalination plants serve as a kind of insurance policy against severe droughts and other disruptions. The ocean, after all, is always there.

Drilling for water in Qumeran Valley, Israel - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Drilling for water in Qumeran Valley, Israel
Photo by Tamarah on Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 2.5

Reclaimed waste water is another promising source of water for agriculture that Israel has used effectively. The idea of reusing sewage is repulsive to most people, but when water is at a premium, as in Israel, it’s an option that can’t be ignored. The main concern with recycled waste water is that dangerous microbes or other contaminants might remain even after processing. That could endanger anyone exposed to it, as well as the crops treated with it and the groundwater under the crops. Israel addressed this risk with a process that resembles a giant version of the BioSand water filters described earlier.

Israel’s sewage treatment plants were located near some sand dunes, under which there was a known water aquifer. The water engineers began speculating: What if the treated waste water were released into the sand and allowed to percolate down into the groundwater? Would the sand act as an effective filter? It was a risky experiment, but worth trying. After more than a year, the results were in. Yes, the sand made the water clean, safe enough for agricultural use. Today, Israel reuses more than 85 percent of its sewage, which provides 21 percent of its water.^[16]

Israel also pioneered the use of drip irrigation, which made it possible to grow abundant crops by using limited water supplies efficiently.

These innovations may seem out of reach for many developing countries. Their implementation would require concerted, long-term effort, and they can be expensive. But they show what is possible. These are things we know can be done—because they have been done. They point the way to a future free from pure water insecurity. And that’s something all people can aspire to.

The Big Picture

The world’s need for pure water has only accelerated with the inexorable growth in population, which could reach another 2 billion by 2050. And by then the demand for water could increase by 30 percent.^[17]

The United Nations has appropriately designated March 22 as World Water Day to focus on the global need for pure water. Along with international bodies like the U.N. and the World Health Organization, countless nonprofits and NGOs are addressing the issue. Many of them focus on Africa, which has some of the most severe water problems. But Asia is in urgent need of help too, and even affluent countries are not immune from water emergencies.

Those who deal with the global pure water crisis recognize the critical need for funds to attack the problem. Usually, the people most in need don’t address their own problems because they simply can’t. They don’t have the resources. And they often don’t have the leisure time to think beyond their immediate survival. So outside funds are essential to solving the problem. But that’s not all that’s needed.

The world’s need for pure water has only accelerated with the inexorable growth in population.
By 2050, the demand for water could increase by 30%.

Relief organizations that drill wells in poor communities must also think about their long-term maintenance. When the local people haven’t been taught how to care for the wells, over time those wells become useless. In a 2009 report, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) noted that 50,000 such wells in rural Africa had become nonfunctional. The reason was distressingly clear: “The root cause is the water community’s failure to plan for maintenance of the infrastructure in a systematic way …”^[18]

Outside organizations came in, installed wells with the best of intentions, and then left. But their work did not endure.

Keeping It Local

Gospel for Asia (GFA) knows of the pitfalls that beset many relief efforts. To ensure their work will be sustainable while keeping costs low, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers employ local people to drill Jesus Wells, and they train local people to maintain the wells. In addition, Jesus Wells are constructed with local components, making them much less expensive than those brought in from outside. Buying materials in bulk saves even more money. Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers can install a complete well for 1,400 USD. By drilling deep, they can reach water that may have been inaccessible before. Villagers can be assured of pure water even through the dry seasons.

Jesus Wells are conveniently located for community access, and the water is always freely available to anyone, regardless of religion, class or background. Each Jesus Well serves an average of 300 people, and the wells are built to last for decades.

Along with providing pure water, Jesus Wells strengthen the local economy and inspire a healthy pride of ownership.

In 2017, Gospel for Asia (GFA) helped install more than 4,600 Jesus Wells in Asian communities. But that’s just a start. With the generous support of donors throughout the world, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers will continue to help address the global water crisis—one community at a time.

Six Steps to Pure Water Security

The world’s water problems can seem overwhelming. Some of the solutions are complex, difficult and expensive. But others are simple, easy and cheap. Here’s a short list of things that can make a difference—starting with the easiest and ending with the ones that still await as promises for the future.

Provide BioSand water filters.
Just one of these portable, inexpensive items can literally save an entire family from a life of sickness and hardship. To deprive vulnerable people of this simple solution would be tragic.
Drill deep wells.
Not every well will endure through droughts and overuse, but here’s the key to long-term success: Don’t stop when you hit water! Keep drilling. Deep wells will ensure the water keeps flowing through the dry times.
Train local people to maintain the wells.
What good is a well that’s broken or contaminated? Remember 50,000 wells in Africa alone are sitting unused because of inadequate maintenance. It’s not enough to provide the well. Instilling the knowledge to maintain it over the years is also essential.
Launch water-reclamation programs.
Sewage may be unpleasant, but it’s also a valuable resource. Properly treated, reclaimed water can revolutionize agriculture almost anywhere in the world.
Develop national water policies.
Water is a community resource. It can’t be managed effectively with scattered, isolated efforts. Most national governments are grappling with this reality. Some are responding with effective programs. That must happen on a wider scale.
Pursue desalination.
It’s expensive now. But so are sickness, poverty and death. The ocean is the one water source that will never be depleted. This is a promising avenue for the future.

Dying of Thirst: The Global Water Crisis – The Crucial Quest for Access to Clean Water: Part 1 | Part 2

This Special Report article originally appeared on gfa.org.

Read the Global Clean Water Crisis Report: Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water.

Learn more about how to provide clean water to families and villages through Jesus Wells and BioSand Water Filters.

To read more on the global crisis for water on Patheos, go here.

Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

Go here to know more about Gospel for Asia: Radio | About | Integrity | Facebook | Lawsuit

Footnotes

^[1] World Fact Book. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html. Accessed January 24, 2019.
^[2] U.S. Census Bureau Current Population. U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/popclock/print.php?component=counter. January 1, 2019. Accessed January 24, 2019.
^[3] India’s Population to Surpass that of China around 2024: UN. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/indias-population-to-surpass-that-of-chinas-around-2024-un/articleshow/59257045.cms Updated June 21, 2017. Accessed January 24, 2019.
^[4] NITI Aayog, Composite Water Management Index: A Tool for Water Management, p. 15. June 2018.
^[5] NITI Aayog, Composite Water Management Index: A Tool for Water Management, p. 15. June 2018.
^[6] NITI Aayog, Composite Water Management Index: A Tool for Water Management, p. 15. June 2018.
^[7] NITI Aayog, Composite Water Management Index: A Tool for Water Management, p. 15. June 2018.
^[8] NITI Aayog, Composite Water Management Index: A Tool for Water Management, p. 15. June 2018.
^[9] Dhawan, Vibha. Water and Agriculture in India. Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. 2017.
^[10] Siegel, Seth M. Let There Be Water, p 21. 2015 Thomas Dunne Books.
^[11] Siegel, Seth M. Let There Be Water, p 21. 2015 Thomas Dunne Books.
^[12] The World Factbook: Middle East: Israel. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/is.html. Updated January 22, 2019. Accessed January 27, 2019.
^[13] The World Factbook: Middle East: West Bank. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html. January 22, 2019.
^[14] The World Factbook: Middle East: Gaza Strip. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/gz.html January 22, 2019. Accessed January 28, 2019
^[15] Siegel, Seth M. Let There Be Water, p 252. 2015 Thomas Dunne Books.
^[16] Siegel, Seth M. Let There Be Water, p 252. 2015 Thomas Dunne Books.
^[17] The United Nations world water development report 2018: nature-based solutions for water; facts and figure, p. 2. UNESCO Digital Library. 2018.
^[18] Skinner, Jamie. Where every drop counts: tackling rural Africa’s water crisis. International Institute for Environment and Development. http://pubs.iied.org/17055IIED. March 2009. Accessed December 27, 2018.

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Dying of Thirst: The Global Water Crisis (#2 by Gospel for Asia)

March 23, 2019 By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report Part 2– Discussing the global water crisis and the quest for access to clean water.

Dying of Thirst: The Global Water Crisis (#2 by Gospel for Asia) - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — A mother cares for her son who is being treated for cholera at a UNICEF-supported cholera treatment center in Baidoa, Somalia Photo by Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin, UNICEF

Waterborne Diseases Caused by the Global Water Crisis

Even under normal conditions, people in many regions are exposed to life-threatening diseases from their water, including typhoid, polio and hepatitis A. Among the most common waterborne diseases is diarrhea, which can be caused by any of several pathogens. It kills about 1.5 million children every year, more than 80 percent of them in Africa and South Asia. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 88 percent of those deaths are caused by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.^[1] Diarrheal diseases kill by depleting the body’s fluids, often very rapidly.

Children are most vulnerable because their metabolisms use more water than adults’, and their body weight consists of more water proportionally than an adult’s. Their kidneys are also less able to conserve water.^[2]

Diseases that are so deadly can be prevented
with changes that are simple.

Children with malnutrition and weakened immune systems are especially susceptible to the worst effects of diarrhea. This explains why diarrheal disease is one of the primary killers in poorer countries but not in the developed world. Some diarrheal diseases target adults and older children. One of the most familiar and deadly of these is cholera, which afflicts between 1.4 million and 4 million people each year, killing thousands.^[3]

In some documented cases, improving the quality of water at the source, combined with treatment of household water and safe water-storage systems, has reduced the incidence of diarrhea by 47 percent. And studies show that simply handwashing with soap can reduce the incidence by 40 percent.^[4] These figures underscore a tragic truth: Diseases that are so deadly can be prevented with changes that are simple.

Trace Element Contamination Adds to Global Water Crisis

Sometimes it isn’t living organisms that make people sick, but it’s the naturally occurring elements in the water. Heavy metals and other trace elements are usually present in our diets, and in fact, many of them are essential—but only in tiny quantities. When we ingest more than the safe levels, we can experience illness and even death.

Jesus Wells were dug by Gospel for Asia-supported workers - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — In 2014, four Jesus Wells were dug by Gospel for Asia-supported workers in one drought stricken region—now approximately 5,300 people benefit from these wells. Read the story »

Some of these elements are in the ground and leach naturally into the water we use, while others are introduced into the water supply through industry, mining and agriculture.

This was the problem facing four Asian villages when Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers came to the scene in 2014. This area typically experienced several months of drought, followed by heavy monsoon rains. But the water left by the rains was contaminated with chemicals. Villagers with enough money could buy their own water, but the poor had to walk long distances every day to ask for water from local landlords. Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported pastors in the area arranged for wells to be installed in all four villages, bringing clean water at last to approximately 5,300 people.

One of the most well-known water contaminants is lead. Lead poisoning can cause headaches, abdominal pain, mood disorders, high blood pressure, joint and muscle pain, and difficulty with memory or concentration. As always, children experience the worst effects. Lead poisoning can delay their development and cause learning difficulties. They may also experience fatigue, vomiting, hearing loss and seizures.

Water is a fragile resource, and its problems
are not limited to the developing world.

Since lead paint was identified as a major problem in the United States during the 1970s, a concerted national campaign reduced its impact over time. But Americans received a wake-up call in 2014 when the water supply in Flint, Michigan, came under scrutiny—as described by Karen Burton Mains in GFA’s special report “The Global Water Crisis: Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water.”^[5]

Residents complained about the color, taste and smell of their water. It turned out that the service lines from water mains to individual homes in Flint were made of lead and were not treated with corrosion inhibitors, which keep the contamination at acceptable levels. Eighty-seven cases of Legionnaire’s disease were associated with the contaminated water, leading to 12 deaths. Overall, more than 100,000 people had been exposed to a dangerous poison.

The Flint saga reminded everyone that water is a fragile resource, and its problems are not limited to the developing world.

The National Guard delivers bottled water to residents of Flint, MI - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — The National Guard delivers bottled water to residents of Flint, MI.

In 2017, the Reuters news agency conducted an investigation that revealed how widespread such issues really are even in the United States. Their reporters discovered 3,810 areas in the U.S with childhood lead poisoning rates twice as high as those found in Flint. And 1,300 areas showed lead levels four times greater than those found in Flint.^[6] The affected locations included 34 states and Washington D.C. In the best of outcomes, such a national scandal should at least inspire compassion for others around the world who struggle to find clean water.

Arsenic is well known as a poison, but it’s actually an element that occurs naturally throughout the world. When it enters a water supply, however, it can cause unimaginable suffering.

In 1983, scientists discovered arsenic in the water of 33 villages in West Bengal, India. Subsequent investigations revealed similar contamination in 2,417 villages along the flood plains of the Ganges River.^[7]

Arsenic poisoning can cause severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Other symptoms include abnormal heart rhythm, muscle cramps and tingling extremities. Some victims first notice unusual lesions and growths on their skin, and many then discover they have cancer. Victims of arsenic poisoning can recover if the source of their illness is removed in time.

Several other disease-causing trace elements—most of them heavy metals—contaminate water supplies today. Cadmium accumulates in the kidneys and hepatic system and can cause cancer. Chromium, likewise, can cause liver and skin cancer when it reaches high levels. Zinc and copper can also be dangerous to health.

A Simple Solution to the Global Water Crisis

People in the developed world rely on their water providers to protect them from such threats. For those who can afford it, a home filtration system offers added security. But people living in poorer areas have no such protection. They often collect their water from fetid ponds or polluted streams. They’re exposed to all the worst dangers that may be hidden in their water.

Fortunately, a solution exists that can offer them protection similar to what the rest of us enjoy. And it’s amazingly simple, portable, effective and affordable. It’s called a BioSand water filter.

Since [the Biosand water filters] were installed, all water-caused and waterborne diseases have ceased.

BioSand water filters use mechanical and biological processes to remove heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, protozoa and other impurities from water. They are widely recognized as effective and are small enough to fit easily in virtually any home. Most importantly, they are inexpensive—just $30 for a filter that can serve an entire family with clean water for decades. Seeing the dramatic impact BioSand water filters have, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers have built and provided 85,000 of them for Asian families since 2008.

Aanjay, a farmer in Asia, saw firsthand the effects of contaminated water on his family and his entire village.

“We were forced to use dirty and filthy water for cooking and drinking,” he recalls. “Thus, we suffered stomachache, jaundice, typhoid and diarrhea.”

The villagers also had to use the tainted water for bathing, which caused skin infections.

That changed when some Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported pastors provided BioSand water filters for Aanjay’s family and several others.

“Along with receiving a filter, families also received health and hygiene training that works to significantly lower the incidence of waterborne illness,” Aanjay says. “Now the villagers are getting purely filtered water for drinking. Since [the Biosand water filters] were installed, all water-caused and waterborne diseases have ceased.”

Burkina Faso: Africa’s Anguish

Recurring drought, contamination and lack of funds have all contributed to Africa’s severe water problems. A vivid example of all three can be found in the little landlocked country of Burkina Faso.

Located in the vast savanna region south of the Sahara Desert, Burkina Faso endures up to eight months of dry weather each year.^[8] When drought makes conditions even worse, as it did in 2016, a true crisis occurs. That year, the capital, Ougadougou, was able to provide only intermittent water service for its 2 million residents. People were forced to travel far into the countryside to find usable water.^[9] Water shortages like this, and the power outages that accompany them, have become a normal part of life for city residents.

Nearly half the residents of Burkina Faso live without clean water.

For people in rural areas, the hardships are even worse. Eighty percent of Burkina Faso’s people are subsistence farmers,^[10] so droughts are especially devastating for them. The country is also plagued by waterborne diseases common to undeveloped areas—diarrhea, hepatitis A and typhoid fever.^[11]

According to Water Aid UK, 4,500 children under the age of 5 die of diarrhea each year in Burkina Faso, and nearly half the residents live without clean water.^[12] When the rains do come, mosquitoes that breed in the standing water spread malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever.

women are collecting water for crop irrigation in Burkina Faso - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — These women are collecting water for crop irrigation in Burkina Faso, where the global water crisis is severe.

One of the main industries in Burkina Faso is gold mining. But the mining process has introduced deadly arsenic into the groundwater.^[13] On top of all these challenges, the rapidly-growing population is putting unprecedented stress on the water supply. War and disruption in neighboring countries have displaced millions of people, many of whom seek refuge in Burkina Faso. This has only exacerbated a problem that was already severe.^[14]

Efforts to improve conditions in Burkina Faso haven’t always been effective. Relief workers from Water Aid UK found that many existing wells there were unusable because of broken handpumps. And toilets provided by the government to improve hygiene were going unused—because people don’t know what to do with them.^[15] This underscores the importance of education to go along with physical improvements. One without the other leads to failure.

Against this stark backdrop, a number of entities are working valiantly to reverse the cycle of despair in Burkina Faso. Since 2000, the government has taken real steps to address the crisis, creating five water basin committees to protect and preserve water resources throughout the country.^[16] Meanwhile, many non-governmental organizations are helping by drilling new wells, repairing old ones and training local people to manage their water effectively. Among these are the aforementioned Water Aid UK, Myra’s Wells, SIM missionary organization, The Water Project, Hearts for Burkina, Engage Burkina, and Living Water International.

Dying of Thirst: The Global Water Crisis – The Crucial Quest for Access to Clean Water: Part 1 | Part 3

This Special Report article originally appeared on gfa.org.

Read the Global Clean Water Crisis Report: Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water.

Learn more about how to provide clean water to families and villages through Jesus Wells and BioSand Water Filters.

To read more on the Global Water Crisis on Patheos, go here.

Click here, to read more blogs on Patheos from Gospel for Asia.

Go here to know more about Gospel for Asia: Radio | About | Integrity | Facebook | Lawsuit

For more information about this, click here.

Footnotes

^[1] Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done, p. 11. UNICEF/WHO. 2009.
^[2] Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done, p. 11. UNICEF/WHO. 2009.
^[3] Cholera: Key Facts. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cholera. February 1, 2018. Accessed January 15, 2019.
^[4] Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done, p. 12. UNICEF/WHO. 2009.
^[5] Gospel for Asia, Special Report: The Global Water Crisis, https://www.gfa.org/special-report/global-clean-water-crisis/
^[6] Pell, M.B., Schneyer, Joshua. Reuters finds 3,810 U.S. areas with lead poisoning double Flint’s. Reuters Special Reports. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lead-map/reuters-finds-3810-u-s-areas-with-lead-poisoning-double-flints-idUSKBN1DE1H2. November 14 2017. Accessed December 26, 2018.
^[7] Ghosh, N.C., Singh, R.D. Groundwater Arsenic Contamination in India: Vulnerability and Scope for Remedy, Uttarahkand, India, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, p. 2. Accessed December 26, 2018.
^[8] The World Factbook: Africa: Burkina Faso. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/uv.html. Updated January 22, 2019. Accessed January 26, 2019.
^[9] Burkina Faso drought triggers water and power shortages. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/drought-brings-water-power-shortages-burkina-faso-160511103306983.html. May 11, 2016. Accessed January 28, 2019.
^[10] The World Factbook: Africa: Burkina Faso. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/uv.html. Updated January 22, 2019. Accessed January 26, 2019.
^[11] The World Factbook: Africa: Burkina Faso. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/uv.html. Updated January 22, 2019. Accessed January 26, 2019.
^[12] Andrew McConnell. Water is precious in landlocked Burkina Faso, West Africa. Water Aid UK. https://www.wateraid.org/where-we-work/burkina-faso. Accessed January 28, 2019.
^[13] Shannon Warren. The Current Situation of Water Quality in Burkina Faso. The Borgen Project. https://borgenproject.org/water-quality-in-burkina-faso/. October 2016. Accessed January 28, 2019.
^[14] The World Factbook: Africa: Burkina Faso. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/uv.html. Updated January 22, 2019. Accessed January 26, 2019.
^[15] Andrew McConnell. Water is precious in landlocked Burkina Faso, West Africa. Water Aid UK. https://www.wateraid.org/where-we-work/burkina-faso. Accessed January 28, 2019.
^[16] Shannon Warren. The Current Situation of Water Quality in Burkina Faso. The Borgen Project. https://borgenproject.org/water-quality-in-burkina-faso/. October 2016. Accessed January 28, 2019.

How Heroes Work Together to Solve the Global Water Crisis

August 22, 2018 By GFA Staff Writer

Gospel for Asia (GFA World), Wills Point, Texas – Discussing what people can actually do to help resolve the global water crisis.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.”
— Ecclesiastes 4:9

We learn about the importance of working together when we’re children. As early as kindergarten, careful teachers share lessons about helping others. Moms and dads often start those lessons even younger. If everyone helps out around the house, chores get done more quickly with less of a burden on one person.

The core messages are responsibility and finding strength in numbers. The most daunting and insurmountable obstacles aren’t so intimidating after all, not when everyone shares the load.

For one person reading sad stories about the global water crisis, it might seem impossible to solve. How much of a difference can one person really make? Alone, it would feel like moving a beach, one tiny grain of sand at a time. But together, people can be heroes who move mountains.

A Well Saves Lives, but a Maintained Well Saves Generations

Without a well to tap deep into clean groundwater, villages throughout rural Asia have two difficult options: They can collect contaminated surface water, or they can travel great distances to buy expensive water elsewhere.

According to Global Citizen, parts of Asia are peppered with wells that are in various stages of completion or disrepair. It’s a feeling of abandonment, says a village chief in Cameroon. A well that’s never finished doesn’t help a soul. One that’s broken is nothing but a sad reminder of hope and money that’s been lost. Imagine walking past a non-working well that once poured clean water only to collect stagnant water that’s contaminated.

Some of GFA’s most important work is supporting the installation of water wells knowns as Jesus Wells. One Jesus Well provides a village of hundreds with clean, pure water for decades. A Jesus Well is different than many of the local wells that can be found and does more. Local workers have the manpower, tools and supplies to finish the job while keeping the costs low. Then, instead of leaving the village to its fate, a nearby church that’s committed to sharing God’s love has trained people on hand to maintain and repair the well and keep it working.

Now, the people who rely on Jesus Wells have the comfort of knowing if there’s a problem, it will be solved by someone they know and trust.

Where Wells Aren’t Possible, Water Filters Make Pure Water Accessible

Wells aren’t a universal solution to the clean water crisis. In some areas, there’s enough surface water; it’s just too dangerous to drink. Gospel for Asia (GFA) also supports the distribution of BioSand water filters in Asia, which makes clean water available just a few steps from home.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says contaminants in drinking water fall into four categories: physical, chemical, biological and radiological. The first three are quite common throughout rural Asia’s dangerous water sources.

Contaminants range from discarded trash to dumped waste chemicals to viruses, parasites and human waste solids. The water looks dirty because it is dirty.

One BioSand water filter can remove well over 90 percent of the worst contaminants for a household. It doesn’t need purification chemicals, electricity, moving parts or special inserts to replace. They’re not like the water filter you might have in your fridge at home that needs a new cartridge once a month. Using inexpensive materials and good common sense, local workers build these filters and set them up near the homes of local villagers. As with Jesus Wells, if there’s a problem, someone close to home knows how to fix it.

Using concrete for the housing, a BioSand water filter has fine layers of gravel and sand inside. Once it’s primed, which can take a few days or slightly longer, it naturally destroys some pathogens and traps others, working for years with almost no maintenance. Unhealthy water goes in, clean water comes out.

Global Water Crisis - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Asian women admire the ocean but may not have clean drinking water at home due to the global water crisis.

The Clean Water Crisis Also Needs Community Involvement

When the pastor of a local church commits to helping maintain a well or build water filters, that’s a blessing. When entire villages commit to saving Asia’s precious water, that’s a transformation.

Wells are, indeed, necessary for certain parts of Asia. As in some places in rural America, there’s not always a utility board to pipe in clean, treated water, nor another source to collect it. But a big part of the global water crisis is contamination. And a big part of that is the open defecation problem, which is preventable.

Open Defecation and Its Part in the Global Water Crisis

It’s hard to change habits that have been in place throughout history. Open defecation was once the only option, so of course it seems natural to those who practice it. But as populations grew, pathogen levels increased, and science discovered the connection between disease and exposure to human waste, the need for change became obvious and urgent.

Programs such as UNICEF’s Community Led Total Sanitation engage with the community at different levels to put them in the driver’s seat. Families, clinics, schools and churches working together can end open defecation and normalize the use of toilets in places where it seems strange. And that takes one more layer off the global water crisis.

A change of habit can only happen within; it can’t be brought in and handed over like a present. But without the resources, it can’t happen at all. That’s where Gospel for Asia (GFA) comes in.

Another prong in the effort to save Asia’s water is toilets or latrines. There’s a great deal of resistance because latrines are a foreign concept. But with the funding to install a sanitary latrine, the education to know why it matters, and a network of support throughout the community, change can happen. It’s already happening one latrine at a time.

UNICEF says 100 percent waste containment can solve a number of serious problems for Asia’s poorest people. It can improve diarrhea-related malnutrition. Drinking contaminated water causes diarrhea, especially in children, and claims hundreds of lives each day. Education improves, as fewer illnesses mean better school attendance and better nutrition for brain health.

Women and girls face fewer risks with a latrine near the home. Open defecation means venturing out to a field after dark or before sunrise, where women are at risk of attack. For people with weakened immunities, latrines reduce the likelihood of picking up an additional disease that can kill.

Which brings us full circle.

Latrines contain waste, which means Asia’s water can grow cleaner and healthier with fewer pollutants being added.

Working to End the Global Water Crisis

Not all heroes wear a cape. Some are ordinary people like the workers who install wells, ministers who look after their flock, and folks just like you. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.”

One person can create positive change. But imagine how much easier and widespread positive change can be when a family, a village, a country and the whole world pitch in to help. That’s how God intended his children to be.

Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” Gospel for Asia (GFA) believes in combining efforts to share the love of God with the neediest people in the world. Sometimes, the work isn’t very glamorous. But it’s necessary.

Clean water is the most basic human need. Working together, we move one more step closer to ending the global water crisis.

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Caring for Women & Providing Clean Water Serve “The Least of These”

July 31, 2018 By GFA Staff Writer

Caring for Women & Providing Clean Water Serve - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — National missionaries provide hope and help to women with desperate needs all across Asia, and thereby serve the least of these.

Gospel for Asia (GFA World), Wills Point, TX – Discussing what motivates us to serve “the least of these”.

Driven by a passion to serve people Jesus referred to as “the least of these,” in 1979, Dr. KP Yohannan led a group of prayer believers to establish Gospel for Asia with a vision to turn the passion into practice.

Putting Our Passion into Practice to Serve the Least of These

While millions of people in North America were consumed with the debut of the Dukes of Hazzard, the release of The Muppet Movie, the introduction of the McDonald’s Happy Meal, and things on a more significant scale such as the American hostage crisis in Iran, the search for the Unabomber, and the peace talks in Washington between Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin, a small group of Christians had been fasting and praying in Dallas. They were praying that the Lord would open the way for them to reach “the least of these” in ways that would improve their living conditions and demonstrate the love of Jesus to change their lives forever.

Who are “the least of these?” There is no simple definition and there are even theological debates on the subject. The Lord referred to them as the hungry, the thirsty, the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned. The answer boils down to this – God has always shown a special concern for the poor and needy, so it should come as no surprise that He expects us to do the same. This is not a matter for debate. It is an indicator of Christ-mindedness.

A native of South Asia, Dr. Yohannan has always been acutely aware of the presence and needs of those whom we could call “the least of the least,” “the poorest of the poor,” and those without access to the common necessities for healthy lives or to an awareness of the Gospel.

The vast majority of these people live in what has been called the 10/40 window. The 10/40 window encompasses the area between the 10^th to the 40^th parallels north of the equator and stretches across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. About two-thirds of the world’s total population lives within this ‘window’ that includes nearly all of South Asia.

Dr. Yohannan also understood that the leadership of the emerging nations, many of which had endured the commercialization associated with the colonialization of the British Empire, were wary of outsiders and their agendas. His ground-breaking book, Revolution in World Missions, pointed to the necessity and marked the beginning of reaching, training, and equipping local believers within their native countries who could reach their own people with the love of Jesus.

One of the ways that Gospel for Asia’s national workers serve “the least of these” is by providing care for women, the objects of culturally-based rejection and scorn in much of South Asia.

Serving Women Who Need Training and Assistance

Serving women who need literacy or vocational training - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Serving women who need literacy or vocational training minister to the least of these.

In 2017, Gospel for Asia (GFA) and its worldwide affiliates working in 18 Asian nations empowered more than 350,000 women through various ministry efforts.

In some areas where GFA-supported workers minister, women especially have it difficult. Some silently suffer violence at the hands of their husbands, their close and distant relatives and even strangers who exploit and abuse them.

In 2017, to make a positive difference, Gospel for Asia (GFA) helped provided free health care training to 289,033 women. This training focused on teaching women the basics of how to care for themselves and their families. They also learned how to keep a safe and hygienic home for their families and how to take care of themselves while pregnant. In addition, GFA taught 50,624 women in rural villages how to read and write, which will safeguard them from being cheated at the market and from entering into exploitative and usurious agreements with lenders. Another 10,965 women received vocational training that will provide them with valuable skills to make an honest living.

But more than this, as women experience the love of fellow human beings who are willing to serve and minister to them, their understanding of their worth and value in society is elevated. GFA-supported workers treat each girl and woman they meet with respect. They speak words of life into the hearts of women who’ve silently suffered violence, letting them know they matter, they have value and they are loved — even if the rest of society doesn’t think so.

As Dr. KP Yohannan noted, “It’s heartbreaking to consider the unthinkable struggles so many women go through, many of them unseen by anyone else in the world. We want them to know that they are precious in God’s sight, that they have unique value and worth as people created in His image, and that they are not forgotten.”

Providing Clean Drinking Water to Those Using Contaminated Sources

Another problem that plagues around two billion people worldwide – both women and men – is drinking water from stagnant ponds or water sources contaminated with feces. It is estimated that 502,000 deaths are caused each year by diseases, such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio, which are transmitted through contaminated water.

Providing clean water - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Providing clean water serves the least of these who are getting sick from contaminated water sources.

To meet the critical need for water in some of the neediest regions across Asia, GFA has spearheaded the “Jesus Well” project. In 2017 alone, Gospel for Asia was able to help provide 4,673 wells. That’s 4,673 sources of clean, fresh drinking water. One well typically provides clean water for at least 300 people and can last up to 20 years. GFA supporters around the world have allowed the rate of installation of Jesus Wells to continue and remain consistent, with tens of thousands of wells installed in the past several years. The Jesus Well project is one of the largest clean water initiatives in the world.

In regions where water might be accessible, but it’s just not safe to drink, GFA-supported workers provide BioSand water filters. These simple structures — locally built from concrete, sand, and rocks — filter water to remove 98 percent of biological impurities, providing safer water for drinking and cooking. In 2017, GFA helped provided 11,324 BioSand water filters for families and individuals.

As critical as these needs are, they are just a sampling of all that God has done through GFA in 2017. Around 234,300 families received much-needed income-generating gifts. GFA-supported workers organized 1,245 medical camps in villages and remote communities. They also helped install 6,364 toilets in communities desperately in need of safe sanitation facilities—and so much more.

“These statistics serve as an aerial view of what God accomplished in one year throughout communities in Asia,” Dr. Yohannan said. “God has done so much through His servants, who are faithfully ministering to the poor, desperate and needy around them. We praise God for giving us the opportunity to join Him in his work, and we are deeply grateful for the love, prayers and sacrificial giving of our donors so others may experience the grace and mercy of Christ.”

To learn more about all that God accomplished in GFA, click here.

About Gospel for Asia

Gospel for Asia is a Christian organization deeply committed to seeing communities transformed through the love of Christ demonstrated in word and deed. GFA serves “the least of these” in Asia, often in places where no one else is serving, so they can experience the love of God for the first time.

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Girls’ Education in Asia Often Sacrificed to Fetch Clean Drinking Water for Their Families

July 27, 2018 By GFA Staff Writer

Girls' Education in Asia Often Sacrificed to Fetch Clean Drinking Water - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Education for young girls in Asia is often sacrificed for family roles like fetching clean drinking water for their families.

Tens of thousands of young girls in Asia drop out of school every year. Half of them stop attending at the primary school level, and The Times of India says the number is rising. Several factors affect the likelihood of girls graduating. But the drinking water crisis remains a constant threat.

According to the United Nations, women and girls in rural Asia bear the overwhelming majority of responsibilities for finding and carrying clean drinking water. It’s not a minor chore, not like walking a few steps to a well and carrying it back inside the home. Clean, disease-free water is often miles away. Fetching safe drinking water is a necessary full-time job that comes at the expense of education, among other serious risks.

GFA’s clean water initiatives does more than give families better access to water that’s safe to drink. It gives girls the freedom to focus on life-changing education that can help them achieve their dreams of a future that is above the poverty line.

Much of Asia’s Water Has an Extreme Level of Contamination

As one of the most densely populated countries in the world, the water crisis in Asia affects hundreds of millions of people. One of the primary reasons behind the contamination is a lack of sanitation facilities. The situation is improving, but it’s still a crisis.

Although World Bank statistics show that the practice of open defecation has steadily declined in the 21st Century, there are still places where half the population still has no sanitary toilets. With open defecation, surface and ground water sources take on harmful pathogens and parasites that cause illnesses and even death. Water.org says 500 of Asia’s children die every day from diarrhea that comes from contaminated water.

The problem isn’t just a lack of understanding about contamination, it’s more a lack of access to basic human needs. Water is essential for survival, and clean water is scarce. Thankfully, some Asian nations, such as India, have an educational campaign to curb open defecation and encourage people to use toilets. But when no facilities exist, there’s no other choice.

Young Girls in Asia are Expected to Fetch Clean Drinking Water for Their Families - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Young girls in Asia are expected to fetch clean drinking water for their families, often at the expense of being in school

Fetching Drinking Water is Considered Part of Domestic Life in Asia

Water for drinking, cooking and bathing must come from somewhere. In the Western world, it comes from a tap. In rural Asia, carrying water is an integral part of domesticity. It’s also a full-time job. Child labor in Asia is unlawful in most situations, but laboring for the family’s survival is different. When the family is in need of clean drinking water, education can and often does go by the wayside.

A clean source, such as a well that’s deep enough to go beneath ground water contamination, is often miles away. Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in a day. The trip to and from a source can consume the better part of it.

Carrying Water is Difficult, Demanding Work

Under ideal circumstances, it takes an average adult about 30 minutes to walk a mile at a normal pace. Asia’s girls don’t labor under ideal circumstances.

The paths they take aren’t usually paved. Their footwear isn’t a pair of cross trainers. The containers they carry to their destination are significantly heavier on the return trip. One gallon of water weighs nearly 4 kilograms (or more than 8 pounds).

Time that might be spent on a girl’s studies is used, instead, for physical labor that helps sustain life. It’s no wonder so many of Asia’s precious girls quit school before they graduate. When clean water isn’t a given, fetching it becomes part of their everyday life.

In many parts of the world, children get up on a weekday morning, have breakfast and head out to another day at school. There’s ample water at home for brushing their teeth, for making oatmeal and to carry in a bottle with their backpack.

For some of Asia’s children, clean water isn’t there, not unless someone makes a concerted effort to provide it. Usually, girls and women share the job. The education of some of the brightest minds in the world is sacrificed, not because they don’t want to go to school. It’s because a person—especially a child—can only do so much.

GFA’s clean water initiatives strive to change that reality. A BioSand water filter gives a family a way to filter dirty water into clean water at home. One Jesus Well can provide an entire village with abundant clean water for as many as 300 families per day, for decades.

With clean, healthy and safe water available near the home, children can be children. Girls can focus on their studies as much as their male peers.

Something as simple as water can have the very literal effects of saving lives and giving children, especially girls, the hope of a better future.

For more on the global clean water crisis, go here.

Sources:

Times of India: More girls Dropping Out of School
United Nations: Gender and Water
World Bank: People Practicing Open Defecation % of Population
Water.org: India’s Water and Sanitation Crisis
American India Foundation: The 3 Biggest Reasons That India’s Girls Drop Out of School

Image:

Four Girls Carrying Water in India, By Tom Maisey (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

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Gospel for Asia Identifies Clean Water Problems Around the Globe

April 25, 2018 By Karen Mains

Gospel for Asia (GFA), Wills Point, Texas, Special Report 3/4

So let us take a deep breath. Let us think a moment about that peaceful and stunning NASA photo: AS17-148-22727.

Let us remind ourselves that of all the spinning planets in our solar system, it alone has been created uniquely to sustain water, and that not one other drop has been discovered anywhere else in interstellar space. Let us remember that 75 percent of our planet is covered with water, some 96.5 percent of that in its oceans. Then let us say a prayer for its water resource preservation and purification, and let us remember that some religious systems view water to be holy. Only then, let us absorb the fact that an investigative report by Reuters released December 19, 2016, found nearly 3,000 areas in the United States with lead poisoning rates at least double those in Flint.

This headline tagged a report released by the Associated General Contractors (AGC): “Both Public and Private Studies Find Astounding Gaps Between Current Spending and Projected Needs.” The analysis determined: “Modernizing and replacing aging water infrastructure may be the single largest public works endeavor in our nation’s history. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Gap analysis found a $540 billion gap between current spending and projected needs for water and wastewater infrastructure (combined) over 20 years. Other public studies conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and a private study produced by AGC partner, the Water Infrastructure Network, have similarly estimated the nation’s water infrastructure needs to range between $400 and $600 billion over a 20-year period.

The 2014–2017 Flint, Michigan lead-poisoned water crisis highlights possible impacts on communities if warnings are ignored and if appropriate budget planning is not prioritized. (“What is happening to us in Cape Town may not be an outlier. It could happen to you too.”) We need to understand that water degradation and evaporation and infrastructure decline is happening to us now.

Women in Gayo, Ethiopia collect water from a rain water pool - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — In Gayo Village, Ethiopia, a group of women and young girls collect water from a rain water pool. They use tablets to purify the water before they drink it. Around the world, mostly women and children bear the burden of collecting water for their families.

So what is the status of clean water worldwide? According to the World Health Organization, some of the global facts regarding safe water usage are these:

71%

of the global population in 2015 (5.2 billion people) used a safely managed drinking-water service—that is, one located on premises, available when needed, and free from contamination.

89%

of the global population in 2015 (6.5 billion people) used at least a basic service. A basic service is an improved drinking-water source within a round trip of 30 minutes to collect water.

840 million

people lack even a basic drinking-water service, including 159 million people who are dependent on surface water (water from rivers and ponds).

2 billion

people globally use a drinking water source contaminated with feces.

502,000

deaths every year are caused by diseases transmitted by contaminated water such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio.

38%

of health care facilities lack an improved water source in low- and middle-income countries. 19 percent do not have improved sanitation, and 35 percent lack water and soap for hand-washing.

In addition to these above statistics, WHO also notes that “Yet diarrhea is largely preventable, and the deaths of 361,000 children aged under five years could be avoided each year if these risk factors were addressed. Where water is not readily available, people may decide handwashing is not a priority, thereby adding to the likelihood of diarrhea and other diseases.”

Is Anyone Doing Anything?

Certainly, organizations somehow, somewhere, are doing something about this? Right? This is the natural response of those of us who unthinkingly use clean water to flush our toilets and allow grey water to be piped into the sewer systems of our communities.

Actually, that thought many of us have when we read about water-distressed systems worldwide is right. Well-meaning help of all kinds, from missionary groups to hundreds if not thousands of non-government organizations to the World Bank and the United Nations to the World Health Organization to inter-agency coordinated efforts to private foundations with substantial granting means to individual governments to the largess of western countries—all of them are players in attempting to solve the water problems of the world.

a well in disrepair in africa - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Many wells drilled by well-meaning organizations now lie broken or in disrepair.

However, even the best laid plans of sophisticated systems often go awry. Evidence of this is the estimated 50,000 wells in Africa dug by well-meaning organizations that now lie broken, abandoned and non-functional; a dismal testament to good intentions gone bad. Really bad. Jamie Skinner of the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development reported at the 2009 World Water Forum, a triennial summit, on the state of wells in Africa. He is a water development specialist with particular emphasis on West Africa. His report on “water points” included some of these disturbing facts:

The equivalent of up to $360 million USD has been wasted on building borehole wells that break because they are not maintained or repaired.
Only one third of water points built by NGOs in Senegal’s Kaolack region are working, and 58 percent in northern Ghana are in disrepair.
Disrepair occurs because NGOs often do not fully consult with local people before beginning a water project to determine what it will cost to clean and maintain the well.

Some naysayers have deemed this come-do-your-thing-and-go approach as “non-government organizational malfeasance.” Skinner gives the example of a badly constructed and poorly maintained shallow well, dug by a charity in Katine sub county in north-east Uganda, that was full of soil and animal feces and was making the local population sick. The African Medical and Research Foundation’s strategy to solve this well deficiency was to set up a local committee responsible to operate and maintain a new borehole with trained hand-pump repairmen available in case of breakdown. “There is no point in an external agency coming in, putting in a drill-hole and then passing it over to the local community if they can’t afford to maintain it over the next 10 or 20 years,” concludes Skinner.

A river in India is often used for bathing, washing and drinking - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — A river in India is often used for bathing, washing and drinking.

The Need for Clean Water in Asia

In her book Dirty, Sacred Rivers: Confronting South Asia’s Water Crisis, Cheryl Colopy takes us on nearly every footstep of her arduous investigation starting in the headwaters high in the Himalayas.

“This book chronicles my travels in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh, countries that are knit together by the Ganga and her various tributaries. I explain what I learned about glaciers melting in the mountains, sewage gluts and water shortages in the vast cities, and plans for engineering rivers that will have unknown consequences and perhaps limited benefits,” she writes in her introduction.

Interviewing hundreds of Asian water conservation experts who are concerned about their countries’ water shortages and misuse, we have a chance to listen over her shoulder to their love for their land and their attempts to solve water distress issues. Clean water, indeed, is the goal, but working through past mistakes, the consequences of climate change and its unknown future, population explosions, and unintended engineering mishaps gives the reader an extraordinary feeling of being party to all the discussions. As the flap copy explains, “Many are reviving ingenious methods of water management that thrived for centuries in South Asia and may point the way to water sustainability and healthy rivers.”

Simple is often best. Ancient civilizations solved their water needs in ways that speak to us today.

Here too, as with Jamie Skinner’s reporting on Africa’s abandoned wells, a theme emerges, one the author confesses she discovered during her essentially seven-year journey. “There is no way that I—a former medieval scholar turned environment reporter rather later in life—can claim to have answers to South Asia’s water crisis, if there are right answers. So I give you many highly intelligent, trained, sane, and committed water experts from that region. These authorities more often argue for the lighter hand, the softer path; not no engineering at all, but less invasive engineering, and techniques that are localized, decentralized, and draw on traditional methods along with the almost-lost wisdom of local people.”

a child carries water in kunene namibia - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — A child of the Himba tribe carries a bucket of water in Kamanjab, Kunene, Namibia.

The themes of the book are: Simple is often best. Ancient civilizations solved their water needs in ways that speak to us today. The people who are most affected by water stresses are most often the ones who can solve the problem.

Indeed, the problems are real.

Sewage in the rivers: “Estimates of the amount of untreated raw sewage that enters the Ganga every day are hard to grasp: apparently something in the neighborhood of a billion liters. Much of it comes from homes that do have toilets, where relatively clean water is being flushed away and turned into sewage, which then turns rivers into sewers, a further loss of clean water.”

Climate change: “This lack of snowfall is the chief problem Dobhal (a glacier specialist) has seen in the high mountains in recent years. As a consequence, the glaciers are depleting, not developing. With good winter snowfall, they stay in balance, and the melting rate is not cause for alarm. Melting glacier ice accounts for 30 percent of the water in the rivers. The rest is from snow and from the monsoon. Now that there is less snow, the spring flow in the rivers comes directly from the older ice. When glaciers lose their volume, the rate of melting increases. It’s the difference between a melting block of ice and a melting ice cube. Big glaciers create their own climate. They make cold weather. Big glaciers can be more powerful than the sunlight that reaches them. But as glaciers shrink, the power of the sun to melt them grows.” Unpredictable behavior is ahead from flooding due to increased glacier melt to drought to drying rivers. One expert sums up the uncertainty, saying, “Climate change will manifest itself through water. It will affect every sector of life through precipitation, snow, rain, whatever. Livestock, forestry, soil, sanitation, disease, everything. But we have no idea how it’s going to happen.”

lines of people for water in cape town, south africa - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — An uncanny sight in a first-world country: Lines of people waiting to collect natural spring water during the drought in Cape Town, South Africa.

Agricultural water scarcity: The global water scarcity problem is not limited to providing potable drinking water for humans, although without it we would not exist. Water is necessary for agriculture, for both crops and animal husbandry.

In water-starved South Africa, the first restrictions on water usage were levied upon the agricultural sector. Now, farmers are renegotiating their leases because they cannot produce enough income. Current economic forecasts anticipate that within the next five years as many as 98 percent of farms will have a negative Net Farm Income.

China’s Ministry of Water Resources recently declared a need “to fight for every drop of water or die.” Twelve northern Chinese provinces suffer from water scarcity. In eight, the scarcity is considered acute. This is particularly significant because those provinces provide 38 percent of the country’s agriculture. The rapid economic expansion in China has placed so much demand on water supplies that 28,000 rivers have disappeared over the past 25 years. The flow of the Yellow River has dwindled to a tenth of what it was prior to 1950. Pollution is so rampant in China that almost 10 percent of the groundwater is not even fit for agricultural use.

These countries and others are in a catch-22. Water for agriculture is limited, but it is needed to grow the crops and animals required to feed the demands of growing populations.

The rapid economic expansion in China has placed so much demand on water supplies that 28,000 rivers have disappeared over the past 25 years.

Recognizing the importance of water conservation, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) in India is making a concerted effort to bring dramatic reform in their own jurisdiction. Infrastructure can cause as much as 45 percent water loss, far above the national average of 15 percent systemic water loss. As the KWA brings improvements to its clean water delivery system, the potential for positive impact is significant.

On the national level, Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi began promoting the implementation of a decades-old clean water initiative in 2014. One part of that project alone, linking the Ken and Betwa rivers, would make drinking water available for 1.35 million people plus provide enough to irrigate 600,000 hectares of farmable land. The project is pending approval from the environmental ministry, but nonetheless, we’re hopeful of the efforts making strides to resolve India’s water crisis.

In 2016, 330 million Indians were affected by drought, and the government is taking action to respond. “We are working on a big scheme to bring water to farmlands. We need to have a permanent solution to the drought,” the Prime Minister said.

There is a plan underway for 25,000 villages to get clean water wells, and 5,000 wells have been started, as of April 2017.

Dr. KP Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia and Metropolitan of Believers Eastern Church, met with high officials in the government in March 2016 to discuss ways in which India’s Christian community could collaborate with the government for the good of the nation. Believers Eastern Church has since been able to work together with the Indian government to work on cleaning up some of the nation’s rivers.

One of those voices Colopy interviewed—a highly intelligent, trained and committed expert—Sudhil Chaudhary, a professor of biology at Bhagalpur University has a plan. His is for forestry restoration, which also involves water reclamation. Sudhil would like local communities to be part of each and every decision about the plan. This is a theme that seems to be emerging all over the world. I find it stated more and more as I research world development needs and particularly, the Millennium Development Goals and its companion the Sustainable Development Goals. Things work when there is community buy-in, and often fail when there is none.

This material appeared in Gospel for Asia’s special report “The Global Clean Water Crisis: Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water.”

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Is Safe Water a Human Right or a Human Necessity?

April 23, 2018 By GFA Staff Writer

Developing a broader awareness of various global safe water crises during 2018 has been prompted, in part, by the UN’s annual World Water Day on March 22. We at Gospel for Asia (GFA) have contributed several articles intended to bring attention to the drought in South Africa, the meeting of the World Water Forum in Brasilia, and a post about 12 major global cities facing water crises of one kind or another. Most notably, we published a special report documenting “The Global Clean Water Crisis – Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water.”

Recently, a major religious organization declared that water is a human right. While it is not my desire to debate that issue, I do believe access to pure, clean drinking water is existential. It is a matter of survival for every man, woman and child on the planet.

Throughout the entire order of creation, God, in His infinite wisdom as our Creator, provided everything necessary for the survival and benefit of the pinnacle of His creation: man made in God’s own image. He didn’t create man first and follow that by adding the things we would need for healthy existence. Only when He had a place fully prepared, did He create man.

Today, billions of people in the 10/40 window across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia have limited access to clean, safe water. A significant part of GFA’s humanitarian efforts is providing clean water and access to pure water sources to families and communities that are in desperate, existential situations.

2 billion people around the world use a drinking water source contaminated with feces.
840 million people lack what is considered a basic drinking water service.
502,000 deaths occur every year as a result of diseases contracted by the use of contaminated water.

The water crisis is not one of human rights. It is one of human existence.

That is why Gospel for Asia (GFA) presses on, freely giving BioSand water filters to families and installing Jesus Wells for entire communities. Each filter and each well installed not only provides a clean, safe water source, it provides life and health and hope to individuals, families and communities.

We are diligent in our calling, not because water is a human right, but because it is a human necessity.

Click here to learn how you can help Gospel for Asia supply Jesus Wells.

Click here to learn how you can help Gospel for Asia supply BioSand water filters.

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Safe, Clean Drinking Water at Risk for 12 of the World’s Major Cities

April 12, 2018 By GFA Staff Writer

Gospel for Asia (GFA) News, Wills Point, Texas

Several billion people around the world live without sufficient access to clean water. Over one billion people lack water supplies. Another 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year.

Read Gospel for Asia (GFA)’s Special Report on The Global Clean Water Crisis.

A 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in four is in “water stress.” Twelve major cities are in danger of running out of clean drinking water, if not soon, within the somewhat near future.

Cape Town. The water crisis in the Cape Town has commanded headlines around the globe when the African National Congress declared a national state of emergency as the city had expected to run out of drinking water by April. The deadline was moved to July but, during the third week of March, the government announced that the immediate crisis had been averted.
Sao Paulo is Brazil’s financial center. The city of 20 million faced its own Day Zero in 2015. The city turned off its water supply for 12 hours a day, forcing many businesses and industries to shut down.
Bangalore. The Times of India recently reported that Bangalore “could be the first victim (in Central India) to face an acute water crisis.” The water table in that area has dropped by as much as 25% in the past 20 years. Other cities are also at risk.
Beijing. China is home to 20 percent of the world’s population but has only seven percent of the world’s fresh water available. China saw this coming as its economic expansion began to burgeon in 2005. The Minister of Water Resources said that China must “fight for every drop of water or die.” Over 8,000 rivers have “disappeared” in China over the past 25 years.
Cairo. Egypt suffers a water deficit of 30 billion cubic meters. The national government has begun developing a water security strategy that includes desalination, managing wastewater, and rationing water usage. Challenges facing Cairo include the facts that 4.5 billion cubic meters of its water come from non-renewable sources and that its main source of water, the Nile, is a transboundary river.
Jakarta. The capital city of Indonesia faces an unusual compound crisis. The city is literally sinking. Some officials are concerned that it could eventually end up entirely inundated. Forty percent of the city already sits below sea level. Some residents facing water shortages have taken to illegally draining groundwater, which exacerbates the sinking problem.
Moscow. Russia possesses 25 percent of the world’s freshwater reserves, but 70 percent of its water supply is dependent upon surface water. Somewhere between 35 percent to 60 percent of total drinking water reserves do not meet sanitary standards.
Istanbul, Turkey, is now technically under water stress. Experts have warned that, if not checked, the situation could worsen to water scarcity by 2030. The city’s reservoir levels had declined to less than 30 percent of capacity in 2014. Residents of Istanbul have already become accustomed to water shortages during the dry season.
Mexico City. In Mexico City, 20 percent of residents have tap water available only a few hours a week, and another 20 percent have running water just part of the day. As much as 40% of its clean water is brought in from distant sources. And, like Jakarta, the city is sinking, having been constructed over a lake that had been drained by Spanish Settlers. The sinking is placing stresses on the water delivery infrastructure, causing breakage and collapses.
London. Millions of residents have been urged to conserve water as shortages have arisen in Berkshire, Hampshire, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey due to excessively high demand and crumbling infrastructure. The city draws 80 percent of its water from the Thames and the Lea rivers.
Tokyo is initiating plans to collect rainwater during its four months of high precipitation. Some 750 private and public buildings in the city have water collection and utilization systems. The city’s 30 million residents depend on surface water for 70 percent of their supply.
Miami’s main source of fresh water, the Biscayne Aquifer is facing a water quality problem due to the rising sea level and salt water infiltration. The clean water problem is growing as the city grows by an average of 1,000 people per day, creating not only greater demand for fresh water, but adding the pressure of how to dispose of the additional wastewater.

Even if I (or you) may not be personally affected by water emergencies in the areas where we individually live, modern, urbanized cities around the world are now underwater duress. They serve as the early warning systems that demand correction now and in the future. A March 2018 report World Water Development Report from the UN said that 36 percent of the cities in the world will face a water crisis by 2050.

The World Health Organization has made clean water a priority. According to WHO, “In 2010, The UN General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. Everyone has the right to sufficient, continuous, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use.”

Ensuring a safe water supply for families and communities in South Asia has been a significant part of Gospel for Asia (GFA)’s work. We see first-hand the sickness and disease from which people suffer by not having access to clean water.

No one can survive without water. Many people die from water-borne and vector-borne diseases by drinking or being exposed to contaminated water supplies. These diseases and the deaths they cause can be eliminated as we teach the unreached and as we help to provide them with sources of clean water.

We continue, as we have for many years, to provide BioSand water filters for individual families and small communities. Our gifts of Jesus Wells provide water for communities of up to 300 people, providing them an adequate supply of clean water for up to 20 years.

Read more about Gospel for Asia (GFA) Jesus Wells and BioSand water filters at these links.

Sources:

BBC News, “11 Cities Experiencing Water Stress”
National Geographic, From Not Enough to Too Much, the World’s Water Crisis Explained
Reuters, Drought ends in Brazil’s Sao Paulo but future still uncertain
UPX, How Big Data Is Used To Address Water Crisis In India
The Times of India, Is Day Zero on the horizon? Taps could run dry in Bengaluru, Pune
Financial Times, China’s acute water shortage imperils economic future
Egypt Today, Egypt plans to face water scarcity, allots LE 900B
The Jakarta Post, What will Jokowi’s legacy be in climate change?
BBC, The 11 cities most likely to run out of drinking water – like Cape Town
The Mirror, Water shortage crisis: Millions of residents in London and South-East urged to use “as little as possible” after extreme weather hits supplies
Euro News, 8 major cities running out of water
Miami New Times, Florida Legislators OK Plan to Dump Sewage Into Drinking-Water Aquifers

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Jesus Well Provides Safe Drinking Water and Changed Attitudes

April 6, 2018 By GFA Staff Writer

At Gospel for Asia, we’ve been praying for the water crisis that’s been happening in South Africa. Sometimes I think about it a little more as I take a shower, drink a glass of clean water, or see the rain pouring down. Millions upon millions around the world are wondering where their next drink of water will come from.

Can you imagine waking up this morning at the crack of dawn to wait in line for the water truck to arrive? Maybe you have to dunk your bucket into a dirty old well, because it is your only source of water supply. Your children are getting sick often and you know the brown substance you’re drinking is not ideal. But you have no other choice.

Balab and the other Christians in his village had a problem of their own. They were banned from the public water source—a source that was already polluted and full of bad bacteria. If they needed to get water, they had to wake up early before the sun rose to avoid being beaten or abused. It was an ongoing struggle.

No More Morning Secrets

Before Balab, his wife and five children met Jesus, they were often sick. Malaria, typhoid and jaundice frequently plagued their family, and there seemed to be no end to it. Balab had to start selling his land, cattle and even trees to pay for doctor fees. As sicknesses continued, the bills did too, and eventually Balab had to take out loans from his friends and family members.

Poverty took hold of their lives in more ways than one. Balab and his family were poor in spirit and discouraged. Peace had left their home, and there seemed no hope of help for their family.

But one day, Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported pastor Salm met Balab, and the two men began to talk. Over the course of their conversation, Balab shared with Pastor Salm about his family and their deep discouragement. Balab learned about the hope Salm had in God’s Word and listened to the pastor as he prayed for him and his family.

This is Gospel for Asia-supported pastor Salm and his family. God used him to speak hope into Balab’s life and to bring a Jesus Well for 150 villagers to use.

Pastor Salm visited Balab and his family once a week and saw with his own eyes the struggles they faced. The pastor earnestly prayed for them. Slowly he witnessed how the Lord answered his consistent prayers.

Balab and his family began to heal from their sicknesses, and joy entered their lives. Instead of sorrow, peace came into their home, and they began to go to church. They had experienced Jesus, and now nothing would take that hope away from them—not even opposition.

Rejection, Violence from the Community

When the villagers saw that Balab and his family had begun to follow Christ, they beat them and prohibited them from getting water from the village well or pond. Balab and his family had to wake up early in order to gather water without being harmed. If they didn’t secretly go to the forbidden well, they had to travel nearly a mile and a half to get water from the river.

Jesus Well Provides Safe Drinking Water, and Changes Attitudes Too

Pastor Salm saw this struggle, so he requested a Jesus Well to be drilled in this village. By God’s grace, a Jesus Well was installed, and the village had a new source of clean, safe drinking water for everyone to use. The villager’s hearts began to change toward the believers as they, too, pumped water from the new well.

We, the Gospel for Asia (GFA) community, find great joy in knowing pure water is being given to many villages around Asia! The need is vast, but we know change comes one step at a time. We praise the Lord for the work that has begun and will continue by His grace! And we continue to pray for those in South Africa and Asia who are still struggling without enough water. May the Lord hear our prayers and provide. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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South Africa Day Zero Water Crisis – An Interview

March 14, 2018 By GFA Staff Writer

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa – The world has been watching as Cape Town and other cities in South Africa have been preparing for Day Zero, the day when their public supply of potable water will no longer be available. Amid the preparations, residents are taking mandated precautions to avoid the impending disaster. Many are praying for divine intervention as South Africa endures the longest drought in its history.

Circle of Water’s latest update says, “Farmers in South Africa’s Western Cape province have had to trim water use by 60%, and as a result, agricultural production is expected to be down 20% this year. Wheat production has been the hardest hit – it may be half of last year’s harvest, forcing wheat imports to double. The drought will reduce exports of apples, pears and grapes, and the lack of rain will continue to put stress on the Western Cape’s renowned wine industry. Officials in South Africa are hoping to make their water last until the rainy season, while fine-tuning conservation to better manage water for the future.”

We reached out to Andre Barnard, the Gospel for Asia (SA) representative in Port Elizabeth, for a first-hand look at the situation. Following are excerpts from our conversation:

GFA: Given the size of Cape Town it seems to be getting the most publicity about Day Zero. How is the crisis affecting the Eastern Cape and Port Elizabeth?

André: Port Elizabeth’s 1.3 million people are served by 4 reservoirs, and the lack of rainfall has caused them to be at only 25.62 percent of total capacity.

Recently an Eastern Cape farmer said to me: “I have been farming for 50 years and have never seen a sheep’s lips bleeding because of trying to get to grass between rocks.”

An article from the Port Elizabeth Herald, a local newspaper, said the following about farmers in the Eastern Cape: “They have already reduced their livestock numbers drastically – even slaughtering their breeding flocks and herds.” Several smaller towns have no water at all.

GFA: What restrictions are in place on water usage?

André: Water restrictions and increased fees for excess water usage are in force to reduce usage. Port Elizabeth residents are asked to use only 60 liters (15.8 gallons) of water per person per day. (The average shower uses 22 liters of water per minute.) We currently are allowed 60 liters per person per day. Any usage above this is charged at much higher rates.

GFA: How are citizens taking the shortage?

André: The majority are very good and are doing their best to save as much water as possible. Many people have installed water reservoirs/tanks to collect rain water from their roofs.

GFA: How do they feel about the restrictions?

André: People do not like restrictions, but it’s something we just have to accept.

GFA: Do the local Christians have a different perspective than others on the situation?

André: Yes, Christians do have a completely different perspective. We know and acknowledge that God is in control, that He is the maker and giver of rain. I believe only God can create life and only God can create life-saving water.

GFA: Are you aware of any people for whom the shortage is currently a hardship?

André: The irrigation farms in Hankey, Patensie, and the Gamtoos Valley are facing huge problems because of the low water level in the Kouga Dam which is a major source of water for irrigation

GFA: Is there a sense of panic?

André: Oh yes, I have seen photos of people stock piling drinking water.

Cape Town / South Africa – January 25, 2018: Lines of people waiting to collect natural spring water for drinking in Newlands in the drought in Cape Town South Africa

GFA: Other than a dwindling supply of water, how else is the drought affecting daily life?

André: I think it has forced people to become more aware of their natural environment and the importance of conserving and protecting the water resources given to them by God. More people are acknowledging God as the only hope we have for rain.

GFA: How do you believe that God will glorify Himself both in the current situation and in the coming months?

André: I believe that all Christians will praise the name of God and give Him all the glory even if we have to wait a few more months for rain. We praise Him for every drop. Matthew 5:45 says, “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (ESV)

GFA: How much rain would it take to bring water sources back to normal levels?

André: This is a very difficult question. We would need heavy snow fall in winter and heavy rainfall over several months in the catchment areas.

GFA: What do you anticipate people will do if water is no longer available through taps?

André: That will be a very testing time for government and people alike. To stand in a queue for water will be something new for all of us, and there will be lots of angry and short-tempered people. This will be a very good time for Christians to witness with their patience and love.

GFA: How would you ask believers to pray?

André: People should pray and acknowledge our dependence on God and Him alone, acknowledge our total inability to create rain and give God the glory as the maker of rain, confess to God that we as humans are responsible for harming His creation, confess that we have not been good stewards of the resources He has freely given us, ask Him to forgive us and beg Him for mercy. We should also ask Him to work in the hearts of people to turn to Him for all their needs.

GFA: Thank you, André. We will be praying earnestly and expecting God to do great and marvelous things.

Sources:

Circle of Blue, What’s Up with Water – March 5,2018
Missions Box News, Cape Town Water Crisis Declared National Disaster as ‘Day Zero’ Approaches
Missions Box News, [Update] Cape Town Water Crisis ‘Day Zero’ Moved Back 5 Weeks to July 9th

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