|
|
 |
|||||
|
|
MC Square | Search | |
||
|
|||||
Content Navigation:
Country Links:
|
|
Water for the World
"...I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink..." Matthew 25:35 (NRSV)
Water for the World recently joined with Dokimoi Ergatai after existing as a separate organization since January 2002. Also part of the Engineering Department, WFTW focuses on providing the world's people with clean, drinkable water in a sustainable fashion. Partnered with a local water company, the project develops economically sustainable water filters for people in need around the world while educating others of the dire need for clean water. Find out more by following the links below. The Mission Water for the World's mission is two-fold:
 The Importance What would happen to us without water? We often hear about an adult's need to consume at least 2 liters of water per day. When individuals feel ill, have a fever, or suffer from a sore throat, knowledgeable people first advise them to drink lots of fluids. When items like human waste contaminate a community's only source of water, basic water consumption to meet daily needs becomes hazardous and even life-threatening. To survive, people need a means of cleaning their water to the point where they can ingest it without harm or danger. Water for the World aims to create these means; it intends to provide a simple, effective, inexpensive method to purify and sanitize water. Want to save lives? We start here. Purification Implementation Water for the World has begun implementing purification at a site in Guatemala. Read below for details.  ...The mission of the project has led Water for the World to Bezaleel School, located twenty minutes outside of Coban, Guatemala. The school was established five years ago to give Kekchi people a chance to receive a junior high education founded in the love of Christ. Bezaleel is mainly run by the Kekchi people, with a little help from MCC Missions when needed. The name Bezaleel comes from Exodus and is the name of the craftsman that used his skills to build the Tabernacle. It is the goal of the Kekchi community to give their children a chance to develop their talents and skills to be used in an honoring way to God. Bezaleel has an open atmosphere and is also used to train local pastors and teach missionaries the ways and customs of the Kekchi people. Because of the use of the school, drinking water has become a great need. Currently the kitchen is boiling water over a brick stove heated by wood, while the students use bottled water that is shipped in from Coban. Bottled water can be costly in Guatemala and can quickly become a financial burden for the school to provide water for the students.
Through MCC Missions Water for the World was able to learn of this need and devise a way to help. This past August, Water for the World sent down a team of five to Guatemala. I had the opportunity to travel with Water for the World to Bezaleel to help discuss the application of a water purifying system using filtration and ultra violet light at Bezaleel. The school currently uses a well 253 feet deep with a known history of bacteriological contaminants. The well was tested twice and 20-30 colonies of coliform were found to be present, even after the system was shock treated with chlorine. A single phase pump is used twice a week to fill a 30,000 gallon storage tank located on one of the surrounding hills. The storage tank provides protection for the well pump while the elevation of the tank provides the needed water pressure. Adding an ultra violet light would eliminate the threat of bacteriological contaminants without leaving a taste residue like the needed chlorine would. Because of this, the ultra violet system was what we recommended. While demonstrating our concept and talking about logistics of a system like this at Bezaleel, our team was able to meet Rovi. Rovi is a local health official who took us to other local communities to test their community water sources. This trip opened my eyes to the true need of potable water. Many of the sites were places that as a US citizen, I wouldn’t want to swim in, let alone drink from. True, many sites may have pure water flowing into them, but water contamination can occur from many locations, including the water site itself. The trip also showed me the hope of such a project. Once the school’s system has been up and running for about a year it can then be used as an example of how to make water potable. Meanwhile, Water for the World has our job set out for us. Devising an appropriate way to make an ultra violet system work in rural areas that electricity has not yet reached is our next big task. Through Appropriate Technology and a bit of engineering, we hope to devise systems for these communities. Most importantly we hope to use the clean water as a way of spreading Christ’s love for his people because He is the source of living water that we all drink from. --Erika Peterson Purification Unit Our basic filter, while adaptable to the unique needs of individual situations, consists of four essential stages. First, water pumps through three physical filters of decreasing filtration size to break up or remove most major contaminants. Then the water passes through a chamber of ultra-violet light, which neutralizes remaining biological elements. The result is clean, drinkable water.  Educational Resources Download some of Water for the World's educational resources below. Fliers: "Some Facts About the Use of Water" "Staggering Statistics" "The Top 7 Things Every Messiah Student Can Do to Conserve Water" Project Brochure Contact WFTW Feel free to contact the members of Water for the World using the information below:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
