Buying drinking water drains community resources

 

In many towns and villages in Haiti and Africa, the nearest source of drinkable water is too far to reach on foot.

 

In these struggling communities, people must hire drivers to take them to and from the water source each day or wait for vendors to bring the water to their homes. Either way, the villagers are forced to spend desperately needed cash on what for most North Americans is readily available for nothing.

 

“We want to thank God and Lifewater for this kind gift,” said Jerry Leonard, a resident of Quartier Morrine Clerice, after Lifewater’s donors funded the drilling of a 100-foot-deep well (see photo) that is now providing safe, accessible water for at least 700 people each day.

 

“Water is life,” Jerry noted. “We would spend so much money on water. Now we will use that money for food and (to) pay for school for our kids. Haiti is a poor country . . . now we have our well and a pump with clean and good water. Thank you very much, Lifewater. May God continue blessing you.”

 

It’s not only households that are forced to buy water. Many schools in the developing world are in a similar predicament. One of them, the Haitian American Technical School, was spending so much on daily water purchases for students and staff that it was struggling to remain open. Then Lifewater’s Haitian drilling crew completed a well in March 2021 that has made life much easier at the school.

 

We are glad, but we also know many communities are still urgently waiting for their well to be drilled, or for their broken-down well or pump to be repaired. Will you help them? You can change lives through Lifewater Canada.