Thirst II: Reloaded...

In July, i visited one of the villages where GCC Water Teams will be operating in December. My purpose was to do a little recon in figuring out what the status of the village is in terms of their existing water quality, as well as getting some basic data on their demographics, population stats, etc. What is attached here is a little video that is an edited compendium of the footage that i took while there, and gives you an accurate picture of how our helping to deliver clean water to the 65 - 75 families who live there will be helpful.

By the way, we will be blogging the December Teams as we prep to leave for the field. You can track them by clicking here, or going to http://gccindiadec08.blogspot.com.

Smart Zombie: Thirsty

Okay, so I'm willing to acknowledget that there's "complexity" in any environment that should prevent first-blush judgmentalism. I mean, you don't really know all the details of what affects a person or situation until you spend the time to really understand the environment, relationships and circumstances that cause things to be the way that they are, and people have done a lot of damage over the years by making summary judgments and recommending "solutions" based on a one-sided worldview that is not in full possession of the facts or scenarios in play.

But this particular circumstance REALLY bothers me. See this large concrete basin? It's actually a well. It services a community of about 75 families in a small village in Tamilnadu, Southern India. The water in the well is absolutely disgusting, as you might imagine. The reason for this is that as a water source, it is totally uncovered, and everything from livestock to wild birds and animals use it, garbage finds its way into it, and the standard "stagnation" that occurs with any standing water source occurs here as well. As a result, the village has high infant mortality rates, recurrent sickness in the forms of Typhoid and other water-borne illnesses, and has to ration the water usage of each family on a daily basis. But as tragic as all this is, that's not what really angers me.



What angers me is the small hut you can barely see in the background. This small hut is a diesel-generator powered well with clean water for the crops owned by the wealthy land-owner adjacent to the small village. This one man and his family maintain the well for their own usage and the usage of their crops, but defend the water supply against the 75 families who suffer only 100 yards from his propoerty. When i asked why and how this happens, the people in the village explained, "Well, you see, he only operates it at times when he knows we won't be available to use it, or he threatens us if we try. He is afraid that if he shares the water with us, the water table will drop, and he won't have enough for his crops." So... the village continues to suffer. Their crops don't grow. Their children die. They continue to struggle with disease and water-related rationing. But this guy is fine. He's got his water... who cares about the rest?

So we're going to try to fix this, at least pragmatically, for the 75 families in the village. Through a newly designed, low-tech water-filtration system manufactured by Hydraid, GCC teams, in conjunction with local, indigenous Indian church planters sourced through the Life Mission International network, will install an individual filter for each family that will supply up to 60 gallons of purified, clean water for up to 15 years with only minimal (and easy) manual maintenance.

It still doesn't solve the "heart issue" of the wealthy landowner and his lack of care for the fact that 75 families less than 100 yards from his home suffer from preventable plight... but i'm confident that a group of Jesus-loving Smart Zombies can form a mob to persuade him about that next.