I first want to thank each of you who have been following along with the blog and praying for our team and His work. I feel your support on a daily basis, and know that our team’s successes have been directly related to your faith.
Holly and I went with Carmen to
Chishi Island accompanied by a Ministry Environmental Agent and 2 borehole
(well) diggers to address the lack of clean water on the island, which is an
hour boat ride from Samfya across Lake Bangweulu. There are no wells on the island and only a
few springs that are very low and murky.
How easy is it to take for granted the clean water that pours out from our
faucets and forget the basic foundation of health that clean water
provides. The end of the dry season and
beginning of the rainy season is the worst since the water levels in any wells/springs
are at their lowest and the rains can mean overflow of latrines that can lead
to contamination. Recently, there was a
significant outbreak of diarrhea cases presumed to be typhoid primarily down
near a fishing village.
There was a large village meeting
where the Ministry Agent gave a presentation on the causes and transmission of
diarrheal illnesses and the importance of clean water to the island leaders and
over 100 men, women and children. Carmen
then engaged the community to help develop a clean water plan by bringing
boreholes to Chishi. Carmen is mainly
working for WATER4, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that brings clean water
solutions to different areas of the developing world. The plan would be for WATER4 to dig 6
boreholes, provided that the island gathers support, forms a water committee
comprised of 50% women, help identify potential well locations to maximize the
effectiveness, and commit to pay monthly usage fees to support well maintenance
and the ordering of spare parts for when repairs are needed. The idea is to make the local community engage
and take ownership of the wells and the concept of providing clean water to
Chishi. WATER4 will provide all the training
and tools to get the community to a sustainable level. Such models are much more effective the just building
the wells without the community involvement.
Carmen said that approximately 50% of the wells that were dug outside of
such a program are now non-functional.
In contrast, 17 of 18 wells dug on the nearby Mbebala island under
WATER4’s program are operational.
Afterward, we visited the rural
health center that is manned by only 1 nurse for a population of almost
5000. Talk about being overworked with
limited resources! We audited the health
records for cases of diarrhea over the past 2 years, which Carmen will use to
help determine effectiveness if the well drilling proceeds.
After the boat ride home, we
headed over to the hospital and lo and behold……the autoclave was working and in
midcycle! Thank you, Jesus! Hopefully,
all the indicator strips in the packs will turn and the packs will be dry and
ready for tomorrow. We’ve got 2 full
days of operating to go.
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