Leprosy: Misunderstandings and Stigma Keep it Alive (Part 1)

Last updated on: March 2, 2023 at 10:37 am By GFA Staff Writer

WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report (Part 1) – Discussing the misunderstandings and social stigma of leprosy that keep it alive, despite being a curable worldwide problem.

Leprosy. For many, a cloud of mystery, fear and shame surrounds this disease. It’s a disease that destroys nerves and deadens limbs to sensations of touch or pain, yet at the same time can trigger bouts of unbearable agony for the sufferer as infection exposes raw bones. It’s a disease that is difficult to contract, yet carries a stigma so strong that leprosy-affected people have been forced into isolation for centuries. Why is this disease so feared, and how can we help those who contract it?

Leprosy: Misunderstandings and Stigma Keep it Alive (Part 1) - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Leprosy: Misunderstandings and social stigmas keep it alive, despite being a curable worldwide problem.

What is leprosy?

Mycobacterium leprae bacteria (Public Domain) — Mycobacterium leprae bacteria
(Public Domain)

Leprosy, otherwise known as Hansen’s Disease, is an infectious disease caused by a bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae. This chronic nervous system disease “mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, mucosal surfaces of the upper respiratory tract and the eyes,” according to the World Health Organization.

The first symptoms of leprosy are often eye damage, painless ulcers or patches of discolored skin with accompanying numbness in the affected area. Without intervention, leprosy may cause crippling of hands and feet, loss of limbs, tissue loss on the face and blindness.

The bacteria slowly attacks the nerves and will leave the one affected without the ability to detect pain. Their hands and feet will no longer notice the hot pot burning their palms, the sharp object penetrating their skin, or even a dislocated ankle as they go about their daily life. Wounds become infected, and tissue loss, degeneration or even amputation follows.

The physical disfigurement caused by leprosy is one of the most well-known signs of the disease.

The physical disfigurement caused by leprosy creates a physical and emotional barrier between the individual and the rest of society, the United Nations explains.

Hansen’s Disease, as we know it, has mutilated lives for thousands of years. Reports of leprosy go back as far as 600 BC.

In the Old and New Testament, the Israelites received instructions from God to remove leprosy from among their camp; and later, Jesus Himself touches and heals many people afflicted with leprosy.

Are there any differences between modern-day leprosy and the mentions of leprosy in the Bible?

Answers in Genesis (AIG), an apologetics ministry that provides answers to many questions about the Bible and topics like creation and science, released an article about biblical leprosy. The article, condensed from The Genesis of Germs by Dr. Alan Gillen, states,

“Biblical leprosy is a broader term than the leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) that we know today. The Hebrew tsara’ath included a variety of ailments and is most frequently seen in Leviticus, where it referred primarily to uncleanness or imperfections according to biblical standards. A person with any scaly skin blemish was tsara’ath. The symbolism extended to rot or blemish on leather, the walls of a house, and woven cloth.”

Many have believed the disease is the result of some great sin of the victim.

It is likely that the man with a withered hand in Mark 3:1–5 suffered from the leprosy we are discussing today. Cultures around the world have recorded the devastating effects of Hansen’s Disease: disfigured noses and facial tissue, blind eyes, missing fingers or toes, and hearts rent in grief and anguish.

Intensifying the trauma of the disease is the weight of guilt many sufferers carry. Over the centuries, many have believed the disease is the result of some great sin of the victim. Instead of kindness or pity, the human being—whose world has just shattered—receives a cold shoulder; a fearful stare; an invitation to hit the road, move to a “leper colony” and leave the life they knew before.

Leprosy is Curable—But Still Feared

For hundreds of years, even medical professionals responded in fear of the infectious disease. Because of the misunderstandings and stigma associated with leprosy, very few people in history chose to study the bacterial infection. The few who did confront it now have millions of people benefiting from their courageous efforts.

In 1873, when people believed leprosy was the result of a curse or a judgement from the gods, Dr. A. Hansen, a physician from Norway, discovered that leprosy was caused by bacteria. He proved it was a contagious disease, like so many other plagues in our world. And when you find the cause of a disease, there is hope of finding a cure.

Dr. A. Hansen, the man who discovered the bacteria that causes leprosy (Public Domain)

After that, a few remedies were found to treat leprosy patients, but the disease and its progression remained widely unknown and unexplored until the 1940s. At that time, new anti-leprosy drugs called sulfones were used to treat patients of Hansen’s Disease, but after the bacteria was eliminated from the person’s system, the disfigurement remained—and the discrimination.

In 1947, a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon working in India, Dr. Paul Brand, visited a leprosarium. Dr. Brand was appalled to uncover the lack of research performed regarding the physical deformation leprosy causes. In his book The Gift of Pain, coauthored with best-selling writer Philip Yancey, Dr. Brand records a conversation he had with a pioneer leprosy specialist, Dr. Bob Cochrane, at a leprosy sanitarium.

Dr. Paul Brand, who developed breakthrough treatments for leprosy (Photo credit The Leprosy Mission)

Dr. Brand learned from Dr. Cochrane that, although leprosy was crippling more people than polio or any other disease, few physicians had investigated the disease, and no orthopedist had researched leprosy and the disfigurement it produces. Most doctors at that time joined society in thinking leprosy was a curse from the gods, and as such, it was not a disease they paid attention to.

That conversation and many future encounters with leprosy patients spurred Dr. Brand to delve into the disease and to later become a leprosy specialist himself, establishing breakthrough techniques for correcting leprosy disfigurement.

Although most in the medical field steered clear of leprosy for hundreds and even thousands of years, some dedicated men and women throughout history have labored to understand leprosy. As a result, today leprosy is curable.

Over the decades following Dr. Hansen’s discovery in the 1870s, multiple treatments were used, but they achieved varied success and leprosy bacteria began developing an immunity to the sulfone drug therapy. Finally, in the 1980s, a multi-drug therapy (MDT) treatment successfully cured leprosy without the threat of bacteria developing an immunity, and WHO adopted it as the standard leprosy treatment.

With this powerful cure, multiple global leprosy-elimination strategies have been implemented and have made great strides in reducing new leprosy cases. With support from groups such as the Nippon Foundation, Novartis Foundation and others, MDT has been globally available since 1995—free of charge.

Many leprosy patients like Rushil make their living by begging, and they often can’t afford to buy certain medications that they need. Rushil (pictured) is very grateful for GFA-supported workers providing medicines for free. <a href="https://www.gfa.org/news/articles/gfa-world-counter-cultural-love/?motiv=WB85-PG11&cm_mmc=Patheos-_-OC-_-GFAPatheosBlog-_-Var" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read more of Rushil’s story »</a> — Many leprosy patients like Rushil make their living by begging, and they often can’t afford to buy certain medications that they need. Rushil (pictured) is very grateful for Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers providing medicines for free. Read more of Rushil’s story »

Yet in 2015, more than 200,000 people discovered they had leprosy—a disease that not only ravages the body but also tears families and communities apart.

Now that we have a cure for leprosy, why then, does this devastating disease still exist in our world?

Yohei Sasakawa, the WHO ambassador for leprosy elimination and the chairman of the Nippon Foundation, gives the answer to this question.

“A leprosy campaign can be likened to a motorcycle,” Sasakawa says.

“The front wheel is the medical cure, and the rear wheel is the elimination of stigma and discrimination. The motorcycle will not run smoothly unless the two wheels are balanced and moving at the same speed.”

It is the stigma and misunderstanding surrounding leprosy that causes the disease to still ravage lives today. Eliminating discrimination and false conceptions of leprosy is key to eliminating the disease itself.

Stigma Hindering Leprosy Prevention

Gospel for Asia’s field correspondents have interviewed many leprosy patients over the years. Each person’s account is unique, but there are common elements: shame or fear hindering them from seeking medical attention; believing treatment is too costly; and excommunication from family or friends when it becomes known they contracted leprosy. Even the children of leprosy patients are spurned from society.

Precious stories of faithful husbands standing by their leprosy-affected wives shine like beacons in a bleak sea of sorrowful testimonies.

When Kishori contracted leprosy, her husband stood by her—a counter-cultural decision in a society that usually rejects lepers. Read why Kishori smiles today »

When leprosy was discovered in Kishori’s body, her community endangered her marriage.

“Why are you keeping this sick person with you?” Kishori’s neighbors questioned her husband. “You can send her to her mother’s home.”

“How can I leave her?” he replied to his neighbors. “I love her.”

Kishori’s husband stood by her faithfully, never heeding their community’s call to abandon her because of her leprosy.

Stories like Kishori’s reveal the strength of ingrained stigma—but also how love can withstand those pressures. Sadly, more frequent are the stories of men and women abandoned by their spouses, in-laws, or even kicked out of their homes by their children.

“Women are particularly vulnerable to the myths and stigma associated with leprosy and suffer higher social costs of leprosy owing to fewer options open to them,” sites The World Bank in a document for India’s Second National Leprosy Elimination Project.

The report adds that, although women comprise 25 percent of leprosy patients, because of strong cultural protocol traditions regarding interactions between men and women “it is more difficult for the service providers and public health information campaigns to reach them.”

Once on their own, men, women and even children of all ages often gather together in leprosy colonies. There, at least, they are understood by their neighbors who suffer from the same affliction. In these leprosy colonies, governments often organize relief and medical work for patients. Yet many find the monthly ration too meager to live on, and they must do whatever they can to keep themselves and any family members with them alive.

Cultural stigma and misunderstanding - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Cultural stigma and misunderstanding oftentimes force leprosy sufferers to live in a community by themselves.

Here again, stigma bars their way. Dr. Brand shares in The Gift of Pain the story of Sadan, a leprosy patient whom his wife met. Leprosy had first appeared on Sadan’s body when he was only 8 years old. The stigma of his disease meant he was expelled from school and isolated from society. The child’s friends avoided him, even crossing the street to keep from encountering Sadan.

Finally, when he was 16 years old, Sadan managed to attend a mission school, but his education couldn’t cover up his disease. Employers turned him down, and restaurants and stores would have nothing to do with him. Even public transportation was denied him.

The deformed hands of leprosy patients—and the stigma that surrounds the disease—limit job opportunities.

Many unheard stories follow a pattern similar to Sadan’s. The jobs available to leprosy patients are few, and their damaged hands and feet limit them even more. Some may be able to open shops within their colony—few patients dare to venture out to public markets for fear of disturbing other customers or shop owners with their presence—while others turn to begging, utilizing the very deformities that trapped them in such desperation.

Pervasive fear of catching leprosy permeates the minds of those around leprosy patients, but the reality is that 95 percent of people are naturally immune to leprosy.

Only those who lack this inborn immunity can contract the disease. Research has made great strides in learning about leprosy, but how leprosy is transmitted from person to person is still largely unknown. Those who develop leprosy are typically people who have been closely exposed to Hansen’s Disease for an extended period of time, such as children—who appear to be especially vulnerable.

As stated before, leprosy is curable; but too few people know this life-changing fact. Believing there is nothing to be done or that treatment is too expensive to obtain, those who could be cured of their disease hide in secret, waiting for the “unavoidable” day when sores and disfigurement announce them as “lepers.”

Yet with even one dose of MDT, leprosy patients are no longer contagious, according to American Leprosy Missions. Depending on which of the types of leprosy they contracted, they can be cured with six to twelve months of proper treatment.

“A leprosy campaign can be likened to a motorcycle,” Sasakawa says. “The front wheel is the medical cure, and the rear wheel is the elimination of stigma and discrimination. The motorcycle will not run smoothly unless the two wheels are balanced and moving at the same speed.”

The key is catching leprosy early enough to avoid the debilitation of leprosy as it runs its course—and to prevent the patient from transmitting it to anyone else.

“The problem with leprosy [elimination],” says a Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported worker involved in leprosy ministry,

“is [that] young people, when they identify or when they come to know that they are affected with leprosy, they hide, because there is a fear that if they disclose [their disease] they will be sent out from their families and they will be sent out from their villages. That happened in the past, and it happens even today.”

Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO regional director for South-East Asia, confirms the self-perpetuating effect of stigma, not just among youths but of people of all ages, saying, “As long as leprosy transmission and associated disabilities exist, so will stigma and discrimination and vice-versa.”

Yet beyond the fear of rejection, there is another force at play hindering patients from seeking help: an unwarranted sense of guilt.

Leprosy: Misunderstandings and Stigma Keep it Alive: Part 2 | Part 3

This Special Report article originally appeared on gfa.org

To read more on the experience of leprosy patients on Patheos, go here.

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Poverty Line Problems of the Impoverished (Part 2 by Gospel for Asia)

Last updated on: September 23, 2022 at 12:48 am By GFA Staff Writer

Wills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report Part 2 – Discussing the impact of educational development on the eradication of extreme poverty.

Education’s Holistic Impact on Family Life, Income

God’s creation of the human mind is a marvelous thing. It has the capacity to imagine, dream, create, cherish, remember, deduce, learn and use logic.

When given opportunities through education to learn, cultivate skills and dream, we are capable of accomplishing extraordinary things. To name a few, these include sending human beings into space, discovering medical breakthroughs, crafting new written languages and rebuilding crumbled economies.

This woman works alongside her husband to make bricks, bringing her infant with her - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — This woman works alongside her husband to make bricks, bringing her infant with her. Both men and women work hard in rural villages to try to make ends meet.

We’ve glimpsed snapshots of what happens when mankind lacks the necessary opportunities to cultivate the amazing mind God has granted him.

Underdeveloped minds and absent opportunities steal much of the influence people could make if they only had a chance.

What does it look like when people with little or no opportunity to receive an education are at last given that chance?

An article posted by Schools & Health states,

“Education is fundamental to sustainable development, it is a powerful driver of development and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health; it enables people to be more productive, to earn a better living and enjoy a better quality of life, while also contributing to a country’s overall economic growth.”^[1]

The impact of education on children, families and entire communities affected by poverty is vast and multi-faceted. Let’s consider just a few of the most prominent outcomes of education.

Education’s Impact on Income

Poverty Line Problems of the Impoverished - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Girls study in a UNICEF-supported ‘tent school’ in Afghanistan. Many of their families have been displaced by conflict. (Photo credit UNICEF)

The strong connection between education and income is easy to identify. For every year of primary education received as a child, a worker’s earnings experience a 10 percent increase.^[2]

Knowledge of a skill empowers breadwinners to find jobs with better pay and better hours. A literate person in Pakistan earns 23 percent more than an illiterate worker. And in the female workforce, a woman with high literacy skills can earn 95 percent more than an illiterate woman or one who has low literacy skills.^[3]

In rural Indonesia, those who finish lower secondary education are twice as likely to escape poverty. In addition, their chances of descending into poverty are reduced by a quarter.^[4]

In one study done by an EFA Global Monitoring Report team, findings revealed,

“If all students in low income countries left school with basic reading skills, 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty, which would be equivalent to a 12% cut in world poverty.”^[5]

Increased education doesn’t only open new job opportunities for breadwinners; it also enables workers to succeed in their inherited family businesses. Farmers who receive an education are more likely to implement the use of fertilizers and be better equipped to understand the needs of their crops and soil.

Equipped with mathematical skills, a parent can wisely make choices on purchases, contracts and family budgets. And in any business, an increased understanding of finances and mathematics helps guard business owners against being taken advantage of.

If a mother can read, her child is 50 percent more likely to live past the age of 5.

Education’s Impact on Health

By learning how to wash his hands - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — By learning how to wash his hands, this young student in GFA’s Bridge of Hope Program helps his family to be more healthy.

The increase in pay a literate person receives also increases their chance for a healthier life. The extra income buys food for children who might otherwise suffer from malnutrition; it gives the family the option of visiting a doctor for medical treatment—and even better, it enables them to undergo preventative medical care such as regular checkups or vaccinations.

A healthy breadwinner misses fewer days of work than a sickly one, and medical bills demand less from the family budget. But education’s impact on a family’s health extends beyond their improved financial situation.

Education also empowers parents to make wise, healthy choices for their families.

If a mother can read, her child is 50 percent more likely to live past the age of 5.^[6] The mother is able to read warning labels and follow those simple instructions intended to protect her family from diseases or accidents.

“Education also empowers parents to make wise, healthy choices for their families.”

In places where education is absent, superstitions abound. Misconceptions on proper health practices endanger grown adults and children alike—especially children in the womb. In the case of one mother in Asia, her lack of education tragically resulted in her child perishing before birth.^[7] Sadly, her story is repeated in villages across the globe. Simple health care classes for women who never received education can mean the difference between lost pregnancies and healthy, full-term babies.

One of the most common hygiene practices—hand washing—is virtually unknown in some parts of the world. According to UNICEF,

“Rates of handwashing around the world are low. Observed rates of handwashing with soap at critical moments—i.e., before handling food and after using the toilet—range from zero percent to 34 percent.”

As a result, easily avoided illnesses are claiming millions of lives. Every year, diarrhea claims the lives of more than 1.5 million children under the age of 5; proper handwashing practices can reduce diarrhea by more than 40 percent.^[8]

A person’s health impacts their education as well: A study among primary schools in China with active hand-washing promotions and distributions of soap identified that students missed 54 percent fewer days of school compared to students whose schools had no such program.^[9]

No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated.Nelson Mandela

Education Development and It’s Impact on Society

There is power in education. “No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated,” said Nelson Mandela.^[10]

“Education inspires dreams and equips citizens to pursue their goals.”

Education inspires dreams and equips citizens to pursue their goals. The resulting entrepreneurial efforts help boost economies and create jobs, which aids in global efforts to eliminate poverty.

Literacy is also key to being informed about what is taking place around the world. It builds global awareness into a person’s heart and enables them to engage with others in ways that are impossible without literacy.

The UN states that “quality early education provides children with basic cognitive and language skills and fosters emotional development.”^[11] Alternatively, an estimated US$129 billion is lost each year due to the 250 million children globally who are not learning basic skills (and thus have less potential).^[12] The importance of quality education on society is revealed by its inclusion in the UN’s global Sustainable Development Goals.^[13]

Ashima once faced punishment at school and scolding at home - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Ashima once faced punishment at school and scolding at home because her family could not afford the school supplies she needed. After she enrolled in Bridge of Hope, which provided for all of her school needs, plus many other gifts to support Ashima’s development, she shares, “My future ambition is that I want to become a medical doctor. Especially I want to serve the poor from our society.”

Beyond influencing the economy of a society, education also touches the fibers of morals and lifestyles in a region.

According to Professor W. Steven Barnett, author of Preschool Education and Its Lasting Effects: Research and Policy Implications, a child’s academic success can be impacted by early childhood education, which can also reduce incidences of crime and delinquency.^[14]

“Beyond influencing the economy of a society, education also touches the fibers of morals and lifestyles in a region.”

The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child confirms that a person’s childhood heavily influences their mental, physical and emotional development, with children raised in secure, loving environments thriving more than children who have experienced trauma even one time.^[15]

Do you remember the joy you felt as a child when you did something well in school? The sense of accomplishment and the praise from a teacher or parent give courage and confidence to approach other challenges in life. In the same way, the shame felt when encountering failure can hinder children in life. If a child grows up with a constant sense of failure and insufficiency, that can result in low self-esteem and lack of confidence.

Training children at an early age to pursue their goals and giving them the tools they need to succeed prepare them to thrive in the future challenges they will face as adults.

Solutions to Poverty Line Problems of the Poor & Impoverished: Part 1 | Part 3

This Special Report article originally appeared on gfa.org

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

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^[1] Schools & Health. The Impact of Education. June 2018.
^[2] Pencils of Promise. The Issue. June 2018.
^[3] UNESCO. Teaching and Learning: Achieving quality for all. EFA Global Monitoring Report. 2014.
^[4] UNESCO. Teaching and Learning: Achieving quality for all. EFA Global Monitoring Report. 2014.
^[5] UNESCO. Teaching and Learning: Achieving quality for all. EFA Global Monitoring Report. 2014.
^[6] Borgen Magazine. The Positive Effects of Education. August 11, 2014.
^[7] GFA. Learning How to Save Her Baby. November 2016.
^[8] UNICEF India. Fast Facts and Figures About Handwashing. June 2018.
^[9] UNICEF India. Fast Facts and Figures About Handwashing. June 2018.
^[10] Pencils of Promise. The Issue. June 2018.
^[11] UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Sustainable Development Goal 4. June 2018.
^[12] Pencils of Promise. The Issue. June 2018.
^[13] UN. Sustainable Development Goals. June 2018.
^[14] Livestrong. How Education Affects Early Childhood Development. June 13, 2017.
^[15] Livestrong. How Education Affects Early Childhood Development. June 13, 2017.

Saving Lives at Risk from Open Defecation (Part 1)

Last updated on: April 30, 2021 at 8:05 am By Karen Mains

Wills Point, Texas – Gospel for Asia Special Report (GFA) – Discussing the troubling problem of open defecation and the lack of basic sanitation facilities for millions throughout the world.

Saving Lives at Risk from Open Defecation (Part 1) - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — 2.3 billion worldwide lack basic sanitation facilities and 892 million still defecate in the open, according to World Health Organization.

Karen Mains, author — Karen Burton Mains, author

For much of my adult life, it has been my privilege to hang out with the “renegades” of Christian missions, that relief-and-development crowd that rushes to help during natural disasters, struggles to alleviate the suffering and abasement of refugee displacement, and pays concerted attention to the everyday struggles of everyday living in the developing nations of the world.

The first trip I made around the world was at the invitation of Food for the Hungry, and I traveled with Larry Ward, the executive director at the time, and his wife, Lorraine. It was on this trip I became convinced this particular crew of crisis-ready, crisis-solving, crisis-adaptive humans was fueled solely by adrenaline (“When does he sleep?”).

The purpose of the trip was an international field survey with an emphasis on the refugee crisis in the world, which at that time in the 1980’s was the largest since World War II. We started in Hong Kong and ended seven weeks later in Kenya, Africa. My assignment was to observe with fresh eyes and to write about what I had seen.

The book I wrote, The Fragile Curtain, with the help of daily briefings from the U.S. State Department and the excellent international reporting of “The Christian Science Monitor” (as well as some generous coaching from a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporter) won a Christopher Award, a national prize for works that represent “the highest values of the human spirit.”

Eventually, I brought the accumulated exposure of my world travels—some 55 countries in all—and the learning I had gathered through journalism research and the actualities of dragging through camps and slums to the board table of Medical Ambassadors International (MAI), a global faith-based health organization.

The former international field director of MAI, now working to create a coalition of some 250 mission groups and development organizations implementing the MAI teaching methodology, made a statement I thought about for years:

“I never realized,” he said, “that I would eventually measure the impact of the Gospel by how many toilets had been built in a village.”

Women and girls are often at risk when open defecation - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Women and girls are often at risk when open defecation is the only option for relieving themselves. Thankfully, these precious faces can smile because a toilet facility was recently built in their village.

GFA’s Story: Fighting Open Defecation, Helping to Improve Sanitation in Asia

So what does Christianity have to do with the defecation problems of the world?

Gospel for Asia (GFA) is an organization close to the heart of my husband, David Mains, and to myself. We met K.P. Yohannan, GFA’s founder, when it was just an impelling vision in the heart of a young Indian man—one of those divine nudges that simply would not stop pushing at him. Since then, David has traveled to Asia at the invitation of Gospel for Asia (GFA) some eight times; I have visited Asia under their auspices once. We’ve watched as K.P.’s vision grew from a dream to an actuality with numbers beyond anything we could have considered possible.

GFA’s website tells its story, and its story is vast:

In 2016, some 82,000 impoverished children were fed, clothed and schooled;
829 medical camps provided hundreds of people with free medical care and advice;
10,512 latrines with dual-tank sanitation systems were constructed.

Family in Asia next to a sanitation project from Gospel for Asia - KP Yohannan — This family stands in front of a latrine or “squatty potty” that was installed by GFA-supported national workers.

Gospel for Asia (GFA) started building latrines in 2012, setting a goal of constructing some 15,000 concrete outhouses by 2016. Potable water, of course, travels hand in hand with sanitation, and in 2016, the ministry’s field partners constructed more than 6,822 “Jesus Wells” and distributed 14,886 BioSand water filters to purify drinking water. Touching vignettes on GFA’s website make the statistics personal.

“This saved the lives of people from illness,” stated one villager—and indeed, toilets, when and if they are used, do just that.

A village elder expressed thanks:

“The church is always concerned about the need of people and works hard for a brilliant life for the community.”

There, indeed, is a thread that runs through Gospel for Asia’s stories of toilets: The pastor of the church in this village or that hamlet seems to be the catalyst for health improvement.

Organizations Tackling the Open Defecation Sanitation Crisis

Matt Damon from water.org smiling about clean water - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Matt Damon, the founder of Water.org (photo credit Water.org)

Much of the world is in a war against the perils caused by inadequate or non-existent sanitation. People as diverse as Matt Damon, a Hollywood celebrity, award-winning actor and producer/screenwriter; and Narendra Modi, the current prime minister of India, are battling uphill against open defecation (in the sewers, in running streams, by the roadsides, in the fields and the forests, in garbage dumps).

Damon, driven by a desire to make a difference in solving extreme poverty, discovered that water and sanitation were the two basic foundations beneath much of what ails the world. Through his charity, Water.org, he and his business partner, Gary White, are using the microfinance template to provide loans for underserved people to connect to a service utility or to build a latrine for their homes. Some 5.5 million people have been impacted by his approach, and the group estimates they will reach another 2.5 million by the end of 2017.

Prime Minister Modi campaigned to end open defecation and build latrines for India - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Prime Minister Modi campaigned to end open defecation and build latrines for India. Photo by narendramodiofficial on Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

Modi actually campaigned for office with the slogan “Toilets Before Temples.” Using Gandhi’s 150th birthday—October 2, 2019—as a goal, the Indian prime minister declared his intention to end open defecation in the country by that date. A campaign was framed, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission), and $40 billion was allotted for building latrines and changing mindsets, while the World Bank contributed loans totaling another $1.5 billion.

Another big player in the sanitation action is the United Nations, which in 2000 established Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. While many of these goals were reached (some statisticians conclude that world poverty was halved; others, of course, disagree), progress nevertheless was erratic—great success here and there with some signee countries having few or no results.

Whereas, as Matt Damon discovered, improving sanitation along with clean water, undergirds many of the problems included in what is now being reframed by the UN as Sustainable Development Goals, the target to halve the proportion of the population living without access to improved sanitation facilities by 2015 was missed by almost 700 million people.

Saving Lives at Risk from Open Defecation: Part 2 | Part 3

This article originally appeared on gfa.org

To read more on Patheos on the problem of open defecation, go here.

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Touched by Tony: A Mission Support Team Story

Last updated on: November 25, 2019 at 11:11 am By GFA Staff Writer

Touched by Tony: A Mission Support Team Story - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Tony and Kelly are partner-supported members of the GFA Mission Support Team.

I remember the first time I met Tony. It was late at night, and I had just arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. I was standing at the arrivals curb waiting for someone I had never met to give me a ride to the GFA campus in Wills Point. (I could almost hear my mother’s voice telling me to never accept a ride from a stranger—especially in the dark of night.) Fortunately, the first and only person to offer me a ride was the one GFA had asked to take me to Wills Point.

Turns out that Tony is a member of the GFA Mission Support Team. The drive to GFA provided plenty of time to get to know him. You see, I had thought that Wills Point was a Dallas suburb. But it’s not. I don’t even know for sure how long the ride was or how far we traveled. I’m not saying that the GFA campus is at the end of the world, but in the daytime, you can just about see it from there. I’m almost positive that I saw a sign on the highway that said, “End of the World – 5 miles.”

Back to my story. Tony became my first in-person impression of GFA. He still is. He always will be. From my brief stay at the GFA campus, during which I met many staff members, I learned that Tony is an accurate representation of members of the Mission Support Team. You can read his GFA bio at this link, but the three things I learned about him are far more important than a bio on a website.

He is humble. Those three words will embarrass him if he ever reads them. The first evidence of his humility was his response when I asked him what he does at GFA. I realize that is a common question. I learned many years ago to ask more for personal insight than for information.

The most common response to that question is usually naming a job title—often with a pinch of pride. I still have no more idea what Tony’s job or job title is than what is published in his Mission Support Team bio. He did share some of the various things that he does, including material support and communicating with ministry partners to keep them informed and encouraged. His answer told me less about the specifics of what he does and more about who he is.

He is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Somewhere out in that dark night, we stopped to eat at a world-famous restaurant. Actually, we didn’t go in. We used the drive-thru. When Tony paid for our meal, he handed the gentleman a Gospel tract, told him it was about Jesus Christ and asked him to read it. It was so natural, it was as though he had done it hundreds of times before, which he likely has.

What did I learn? Tony is not just a supporter of missions nor is he just a part of the Mission Support Team as a job. He is doing the same ministry as national missionaries on the field.

He is willing to do whatever is asked of him. That ride took a good-sized chunk out of Tony’s evening. Two days later, he returned me to the airport, keeping him from doing whatever was on his agenda to accomplish that day.

In fact, Tony left the car with me when he dropped me at the guest house. I offered to drive him to his home, but he would have none of it. He grabbed his backpack, and off he went. Early two mornings later, he was standing outside the door with his backpack waiting to return me to DFW.

He is a man of prayer. I can tell when someone is accustomed to talking with the Lord. You probably can too. We prayed together on at least three occasions, according to my recollection. Clearly, our conversation was with the Lord, not with each other, nor were those times meant to impress each other. We did it because that’s what we do.

That’s what I know about Tony. I don’t need to know much more than that. He loves the Lord, and he and his family have denied themselves of many of the so-called pleasures of life in deference to serving our Savior on the GFA Mission Support Team.

I was touched by Tony. That’s the reason that, once I submit this story for publication, I am going to begin contributing to Tony and Kelly’s support. We need more men like Tony serving the Lord like Tony does. I want to help to ensure that Tony and Kelly and their boys are able to continue their ministry with the GFA Mission Support Team.

Perhaps it is time you prayed about supporting a team member as well.

To learn more about the GFA Mission Support Team, visit this page on the GFA website.

To read more on Patheos on the GFA Missions Support Team, go here.

Image Source: Gospel for Asia, Sponsor Tony and Kelly

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It Takes a Village to Change a Mind

Last updated on: November 3, 2019 at 7:26 pm By GFA Staff Writer

Gospel for Asia (GFA World), Wills Point, Texas – Discussing the challenge to change minds on open defecation in Asia.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” —Galatians 6:9

If all your friends are doing it, would you jump off a cliff? That sounds like something your mom might have said. But what if the cliff is really just a big rock on a bank, and there’s a beautiful, clear swimming hole down below?

Perspective changes everything, doesn’t it?

Peer pressure can sometimes be great. In parts of Asia where open defecation is still widely practiced, tradition says that’s how things are done. But times are changing. Education is spreading. Nudges from the community to break with tradition and use a latrine can save lives.

It takes a village to change a mind, and that’s happening throughout rural Asia right now.

Proactive Communities Make Open Defecation Less Socially Acceptable

In the hours after dusk and before dawn, a ritual as old as time happens in rural villages throughout Asia. With small containers of water known as dabbas for washing, people set out to find a secluded place and tend to nature’s call.

That’s the signal for villagers to leap into action. It might be rude, and it might be embarrassing. But the way they see it, it’s effective and that’s all that matters.

According to The Guardian, men, women and even children are getting involved with the community-led total sanitation effort. When they spot people carrying a dabba, they know where they’re headed, and it’s not to use a sanitary latrine. These villagers whistle, shout and overturn water containers, all in an effort to meet an ambitious goal: total sanitation by autumn of next year.

October 2, 2019 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, who famously championed sanitation and cleaning up polluted waterways.

Yet, not everyone believes that open defecation is bad, even though government-run campaigns have sought to educate the public about the link between water pollution, disease and this age-old practice. But community groups such as the Dabba Dol Gang are committed to stopping open defecation and changing people’s minds, even if they must resort to catching people in the act or nearly so.

Community-Led Total Sanitation Change is Beginning to Work

It takes a village to change a mind. But the target audience isn’t one; it’s hundreds of millions. That’s a mighty ambitious effort.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 63 percent of the world’s population use a latrine or “other improved sanitation facilities.” Only 15 percent of people around the world practice open defecation. The problem is, that number is still more than 1 billion.

With more than $1 billion in grant funding, not to mention missions such as GFA working hard to support people in the field, latrines are being built. Unfortunately, many of them stand vacant and unused. And that circles back to mindset.

If a community doesn’t know why sanitation is important, if it hasn’t been shown a cleaner way, and if it hasn’t seen their babies grow stronger and healthier instead of dying before they begin their formal education, it might very well view latrines as strange.

Unfortunately, that’s what tends to happen. Latrines are considered unclean by many. Tending to one could damage a person’s community standing permanently. In the past, only people in the lowest caste would ever maintain a latrine.

But Community-Led Sanitation, a component of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), is part of that village seeking to change the minds of many. High-level assistance, such as program funding, may come from a central government, says World Bank. At the local level, the message gets tighter and more fine-tuned for the intended audience. What resonates in one village might not resonate in another. That’s why community involvement is so important.

Peer pressure is a very real thing no matter where you live. “What will the neighbors think?” happens in the Western world, too. But it’s especially important in areas where ingrained social standing and expectations matter so much. In generations past, open defecation was the norm. Now, society at even the most personal local level, says that’s just not the case anymore.

Sometimes, the motivation for change is safety. A family may build a latrine to protect the girls and women in the family. Because women traditionally only go out to a field under the cover of darkness to relieve themselves, both for privacy and modesty, they’re more at risk of being attacked by a man or even wild animals. An alarming number of women have been raped, murdered or both while out to relieve themselves.

Sometimes, the motivation is more about fitting in with new community norms. If you know that a group of friends and maybe even family members could spot you walking with a dabba, and if you know they’ll alert the whole village, a latrine could preserve your reputation. Whatever works.

Grass-roots efforts paired with national ones create messaging that matters. GFA is part of that effort.

GFA is built on sharing the wondrous love of Christ. Does it seem like latrines and Christ make an unusual pairing? It shouldn’t. The Bible shows us that Jesus didn’t waste a minute of His time on Earth sitting on a gilded throne. He traveled, He welcomed everyone, and He worked hard—and made the ultimate sacrifice to save the lives of the people He loved (and loves) so much. The very least that we, as God’s children, can do is continue saving lives.

In this same spirit of love, GFA has been actively involved in addressing the problem of open defecation in Asia. In 2017 alone, we installed 6,364 outdoor toilets in needy communities. That was in addition to the 10,512 toilets that we installed in 2016. We also published a special report on the topic called “Saving Lives at Risk from Open Defecation: Using Outdoor Toilets to Improve Sanitation.” In this report, we detailed the various practical ways we are helping to improve sanitation in Asia, and thereby show God’s love to communities still needing to overcome the practical challenges and social stigmas involved in moving away from open defecation.

The open defecation problem isn’t pretty. It’s not something you can shine up like a new penny and make it fun to talk about. But it matters deeply to the people who have no other option and don’t know a safer way.

It takes a village to change a mind.

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

Last updated on: September 13, 2023 at 10:40 am 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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Dream Job or God’s Calling?

Last updated on: July 25, 2018 at 6:10 pm By GFA Staff Writer

Ralph and Sandy - Mission Support Team by God's Calling — This is Ralph and Sandy. With joy and steadfast hearts, they serve Jesus together, allowing many around the world to hear about the love of Jesus.

Sandy, a behind-the-scenes missionary with GFA, shares her family’s journey through 20 years of dedicated service. Still today, she and her husband Ralph face the unfinished task together, all for the sake of Christ and His love.

Although my husband Ralph and I were both raised in Christian homes, we had become very disillusioned within the church. We felt there had to be more to the Christian life than works and the fear that we would never be good enough for Heaven. After much prayer and searching, we discovered three things that changed our lives: grace, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We have not been the same since.

Desiring to Serve the Lord Together

In 1997, after my husband completed a degree in business information systems, it was apparent to Ralph and me that we needed to use this skill for God. But we had no idea how to even begin. All we knew was that we wanted to work together as a team for the Lord. We heard an advertisement on the radio about a national Christian job placement service that could help us. After applying for ministries all over the country and asking God to send us wherever He wanted, Gospel for Asia’s response was the only one we received.

We are probably one of the few couples on staff who had no prior knowledge of Gospel for Asia or national missionaries. When we found out we would need to raise support, it was very intimidating. But after reading Revolution in World Missions, we knew this was where God wanted us to serve and that He would provide.

God never ceased to amaze us and show us His faithfulness. Two weeks after returning home from our interview with Gospel for Asia, someone called us and wanted to buy our house. We had not advertised or listed it yet—we hadn’t even told anyone we were leaving! Now we had no place to live and still needed to raise our support goal. Then, in response to one of the support letters we mailed, a couple we had known only three months prior opened their home to us to live with them until our support was raised.

Dream Job or God’s Calling?

We had mailed letters and contacted everyone on our family list, our friend list, our acquaintance list and our friends-of-acquaintances list. Our support came in steadily for about five months and then seemed to dry up. Now we had to really put our faith out there.

I asked the Lord in my quiet time one morning to show us once again our calling and to do something to encourage our faith. I met a lady at the bank later that same day whom I had never seen or met before. After chatting, the lady asked a few questions, and I shared with her our calling to GFA. The lady said that the Lord had given her the gift of giving and she wanted to support us! For the past 20 years that we have served with GFA, she has supported us faithfully every month.

Ralph continued working at his job while we raised support. We were at 75 percent of our support goal when his company offered Ralph his dream job, as well as a huge raise in pay and grade level. There was a deadline to accept the job, and we didn’t have our support fully raised, so Ralph told me on Friday before the deadline to start looking for a place to live and settle down in again. That same afternoon we received a phone call from Brother K.P., the founder of GFA, informing us that a church we had never been to or contacted was going to support us for the exact amount we needed to bring our support goal to 100 percent. Talk about humbling!

The church we had been members of for 15 years wasn’t supporting us, so it blew us away that God would use a church body we had never met, to support us in this way. Once again, we were humbled by His faithfulness!

Now we continued on course, declined the job and were on our way to Texas! To think that God could use us to impact the world with Christ’s love was both exciting and fearful. Would we be good enough? Would we be spiritual enough?

Not a Matter of Being ‘Good Enough’

When we arrived in Texas, it was 110 degrees and everyone from GFA was there to help unload the truck. They actually thanked us for coming and for our hearts to serve the Lord and prayed for us! We quickly found out the answers to our anxious questions: It is not a matter of whether you are good enough or spiritual enough, but whether you are obedient to what He asks of you.

Prayer Always Comes First

Of everything we do at Gospel for Asia, prayer has impacted our lives the most. We pray as individuals, pray in the halls and offices and pray as a staff. No matter what is happening, prayer is what we do first. Ralph and I had never prayed together as a couple before coming to GFA. To this day it is still mind-boggling, humbling and overwhelming to think that the God of the universe bends His ear to hear our prayers..

I remember after we first got to GFA, I really messed up on a project and was crying as I told my leaders. I just knew in my heart that we would be asked to leave or, at the very least, get a heavy reprimand. After tearfully telling them what I had done, the first thing they said was, “Let’s pray about it.”

I thought they didn’t understand how critical this situation was and repeated what had happened. They said, “Let’s pray about it.” So, we did. Then I saw God turn the entire situation around and answer in such a way that had we done what was originally planned, it would have failed. He taught me that day to rely on His plan, not my own, and to always seek Him first!

The Privilege and the Challenge

Being called by God to serve at Gospel for Asia is a privilege. Unfortunately, some days it feels like it is just an ordinary job. It is difficult to stay in the battle day after day when it seems as though you have a target on your back for the enemy to mess with. Some days you can quickly lose focus on Who you are serving and then everything starts going downhill. Although you are working in a Christian environment, there is still the flesh to deal with.

At times like this, I have my rocks of remembrance of how God brought us here and the call He has placed on our lives. When I can “peel away the layers of the onion” and get down to the basic fact that God called me, not to what I want when I want it or how I want it, but to do it His way, then I can rest in Him.

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Gospel for Asia Identifies Clean Water Problems Around the Globe

Last updated on: February 1, 2023 at 4:37 am 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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Gospel for Asia Introduces the Global Clean Water Crisis

Last updated on: February 1, 2023 at 4:43 am By Karen Mains

Asian girls carrying water for miles in a global clean water crisis - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Asian girls carry clean drinking water for miles because of the global clean water crisis.

Gospel for Asia (GFA), Wills Point, Texas, Special Report 1/4 on the global clean water crisis.

The “Blue Marble” photo of Earth shot from Apollo 17, the last of NASA’s Apollo missions as the rocket ship was hurtling toward the moon, wasn’t the first satellite image of our planet, but it was the first full image—stunning in color—taken from some 18,000 miles in space, with the sun fully illuminating Earth. The south polar ice cap, despite heavy cloud cover, was clearly captured, and the photo showed almost the entire coastline of Africa, extending from Antarctica to the Mediterranean Sea. Most of us who saw it at that time were stunned with how much water covered our planet.

This one single dramatic image eventually gave the name “Blue Planet” to our Earth, due obviously to the abundant water sources we could see on its surface. The photo was taken on December 17, 1972 and for all of us at that time, caught up in the exploits of the space discovery, it forever altered the comprehension of our planet. Now, when I think of Earth, and when hundreds of millions of others think of Earth, this is the iconic image that comes to mind.

This is an article about the global clean water crisis, about clean water, about water from a tap or from a glass, hopefully free of pathogens that bring disease. This is an article about clay pots and large plantain leaves and cupped dried gourds that hold rainfall hopefully untainted by acid effluvium. This is an article about pole wells drilled beneath polluted soil, and the unintended arsenic poisoning of villagers. This is an article about drying water reservoirs, about waste and sewage and chemicals polluting streams and rivers and major waterways. It is about encroaching urban development laying acres of implacable concrete and miles of roadways over land where rains can now no longer replenish water tables. It is an article about taking responsibility for that Blue Planet spinning alone, and as far as science now knows, unparalleled in our universe. No liquid water has been confirmed as existing on any other planet in our solar system. As yet, not a single drop of water has been detected anywhere in interstellar space. Scientists have determined that only a planet of the right mass, the right chemical composition and the right location can support liquid water; in other words, a planet like ours, the Blue Planet, this Earth.

663 million people have no access to safe drinking water - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — 663 million people around the world do not have access to safe drinking water as of 2015. This is the first time the number has fallen below 700 million.

That information alone should evoke awe when we look again at the ubiquitous reproductions of the Apollo 17 photo (identified by NASA as AS17-148-22727.) This image is perhaps best described in the spare language of Genesis 1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the waters … And God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.” The Creation account then proceeds with the regular, rhythmical and dynamic pronouncement of the Creator, “And it is good. And it is very good.”

Just imagine: God looking at the actuality of what that splendid photo AS17-148-22727 replicates. Who can refuse to admit to experiencing a similar and deep soul sigh, it is good. It is very good . . .? According to United States Geological Survey (USGS), “The Earth is a watery place. But just how much water exists on, in, and above our planet? About 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth’s water. Water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture and in aquifers, and even in you and your dog.”

I’m not sure about water content in the animal species, but data informs me that adult males are about 60 percent water and adult females are about 55 percent water.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” captures the analysis of contemporary oceanographers, “Water, water everywhere.” And unfortunately, due to the stresses of climate change, rising seas, urban sprawl, lack of urban planning, spoiled springs and creeks and raging rivers overwhelming their banks and flooding, the rest of that poetic lament is becoming all too real, “And not a drop to drink.”

A Quarter of Earth’s Major Cities Face Water Stress

At the time of this writing, the world is watching the water distress in Cape Town, South Africa, where the taps are scheduled to run dry due to extended drought that has emptied the water reservoirs. In fact, experts tell us that this coastal paradise city is not alone in its water depletion extremity. Literally millions of people around the world live without sufficient access to water; over 1 billion people lack water supplies, and another 2.7 billion find it scarce for at least one month of the year. A 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in four are in “water stress.” In fact, right now, there are 11 major cities on the Blue Planet that are most likely to run out of drinking water—exactly like Cape Town. Those cities are:

São Paulo, Brazil’s financial capital.
Bangalore, India, where rapid growth as a technological hub outstrips advancements to the city’s plumbing, resulting in half its drinking water lost to waste.
Beijing, China; the country is home to some 20 percent of the world’s population but whose continent has only 7 percent of the world’s fresh water.
Cairo, Egypt, where the major water source, the River Nile, is the increasing destination of untreated agricultural pollutants and residential waste.
Jakarta, Indonesia, where rising sea levels with saline water have resulted in 40 percent of Jakarta to be below sea level.
Moscow, Russia, where 70 percent of the water supply is dependent upon surface water, but pollution, a leftover from the USSR industrial legacy, has contributed to the fact that 35 percent to 60 percent of total drinking water reserves do not meet sanitary standards.
Istanbul, Turkey, which is now technically in water stress. Experts have warned that, if not checked, the situation could worsen to water scarcity by 2030. The city’s reservoir levels declined to less than 30 percent of capacity in 2014.
Mexico City, Mexico, where 1 in 5 residents have tap water only a few hours a week, and another 20 percent have running water just part of the day.
London, England, where the city draws 80 percent of its water from the Thames and the Lea rivers, has a waste rate of 25 percent, and consequently is predicted to have serious shortages by 2040.
Tokyo, Japan, which is now initiating plans to collect rainwater due to its high precipitation—some 750 private and public buildings in the city have water collection and utilization systems.
Miami, Florida, is suffering from an earlier project to drain its swamps, causing the unforeseen problem of the Atlantic Ocean rising as water warms and now contaminating the Biscayne Aquifer—the city’s main source of fresh water—and causing closure of nearby outlying wells due to saline infusion.

Studying this list makes one point crystal clear: Even if I (or you) may not be personally affected by water emergencies in the areas where we individually live, modern urbanized cities across the entire Blue Planet are now under water duress. They serve as the early warning systems that demand global attention! Attention! Attention! In addition, problems that were ignored 20 years ago are in need of urgent correction now, as are other situations that now need corrections in order to prevent water disasters in the near future.

The World Health Organization has made clean water a priority. According to the WHO Drinking Water Fact Sheet, “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.”

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) releases a yearly grade for infrastructure for the United States as well as a grade for each state. They gave the United States a grade of D+ for the year 2017. According to their report, this assessment for roads, bridges, airports, water systems, etc. is determined by measures like capacity, funding, operation and maintenance, and public safety.

These are the analytics that need to be explained in any discussions of America’s infrastructure hazards, and they are the modes for diagnosing our failing and crumbling public systems, upon which we are all dependent. Consequently, because of its looming water emergency, the thriving city of Cape Town has become the poster city for what, if the necessary correctives are not applied, will be water-scarcity crises duplicated in other large cities worldwide. Even now, that crisis is a reality for millions living in a world where the alarming estimate is that by 2025 half the world’s populations will be living in water-stressed areas.

“We are now limited to using 13 gallons of water per person per day. That’s enough for a 90-second shower, a half-gallon of drinking water, a sink full to hand-wash dishes or laundry, one cooked meal, two hand washings, two teeth brushings and one toilet flush.”

TIME Magazine’s reportage as to the causes of Cape Town’s severe water depletion point to several realities, which are also relevant to other urban centers. Climatologists at the University of Cape Town recognize that man-made climate change is a contributing factor in continuing drought patterns and warn that a drier future with increasingly unpredictable rain supplies is likely. It is generally agreed that the current water crisis is a result of what writers Mikhael Subotzky and Johnny Miller report is “a combination of poor planning, three years of drought and spectacularly bad crisis management. The city’s outdated infrastructure has long struggled to keep up with the burgeoning population. As dam levels began to decline amid the first two years of drought, the default response by city leadership was a series of vague exhortations to be ‘water aware.’”

Cape Town, South Africa faces a global clean water crisis - KP Yohannan - Gospel for Asia — Cape Town, South Africa (population 433,688), where the taps are scheduled to run dry due to extended drought that has emptied the water reservoirs.

In February 2018, Cape Town’s mayor’s office announced more stringent water restrictions: “We are now limited to using 13 gallons of water per person per day. That’s enough for a 90-second shower, a half-gallon of drinking water, a sink full to hand-wash dishes or laundry, one cooked meal, two hand washings, two teeth brushing and one toilet flush.” The warning in the TIME article is this: “What is happening to us in Cape Town might not be an outlier. It could happen to you too.”

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

Last updated on: October 20, 2022 at 2:08 pm 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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