ATLANTA (ABP) — Nearly 75 percent of Ethiopians — about 55 million people — don't have access to clean water. And according to missionary workers there, it's a crisis not discussed often enough.
Many Ethiopians are forced to drink from rivers in areas known for famine, malnutrition and cholera outbreaks. Experts say that “silent tsunami” is responsible for the deaths of millions around the world each year.
Needless to say, a rush of fresh, drinkable water brings a rush of joy. As a field representative for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, David Harding works to make that happen.
Harding works with a group called Living Water Ethiopia, which works with local churches to use simple techniques to bring clean water to the Rift Valley region. Since July 2006, they have drilled nearly 30 wells that provide hundreds of people with clean water. They also use seeds and sand-filter techniques to clean water.
Water can transform communities and unite people, Harding says. During one of his trips to the African nation, Christian and Muslim communities worked together to drill a well. When the drill bit became lodged underground, both faith communities joined hands and prayed for God to intervene.
“It was probably the first time they did anything together,” he said. “Water has that draw. Everybody needs water, and the church was able to use the water to say, ‘We care about you. Access to safe water is a human right for all.'”
A child of missionaries, Harding was born in Ethiopia and lived there for 10 years. Now working with the Salam Vocational Center and based in Orlando, David travels to the country about four times a year.
He travels there because half the wells in Africa no longer function, Harding said. Most of those wells are broken simply because they have had no maintenance, so teaching people to care for the technology is essential.
“If improving access to safe water for a billion people in the world was simply a technical problem, it would have been solved long ago,” Harding said. “It's a behavioral problem where people need to see the connections between water and disease and to feel empowered to do something about it.”
It costs Living Water Ethiopia about $2,500 to dig a well that initially services up to 400 people. As more wells are established in a community, wells typically serve 50 people and their animals.
In short, training and maintenance can translate directly into less disease, more crops, less famine — a true transformation.
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