How Can We Stop the Water Crisis?
As we learn more about contaminated water and the suffering it causes people, it’s only natural to ask: How can we stop the water crisis? At GFA, we dig wells, provide BioSand water filters and build toilets for better sanitation and health.
Access to clean water
More than 150 million people in South Asia suffer from illness due to contaminated water.1 We bring hope and healing to entire communities through Jesus Wells. These wells, drilled 600 feet deep or more, can provide clean water free of charge for 300 people, regardless of their religious or social backgrounds, and last up to 20 years. Our local churches maintain the wells and allow missionaries to show people how worthy they are of God’s eternal love.
Often we’re able to drill our Jesus Wells for much less than other organizations—often 7 times more inexpensively—thanks to using local labor and materials. On average it costs us less than $5 per villager, or $1,400 for 300 people, to supply clean-water wells.
We also supply families with BioSand water filters, a concrete box which employs sand, rocks, gravel and a diffuser plate to remove 98% of impurities from water.
GFA’s water filters and wells have already changed 37.5 million lives throughout Asia. Ragnar’s family was one of them.
Before GFA’s Jesus Well was built in their community, Ragnar’s wife and children walked over a half a mile a few times a day to get water—just to be treated as inferior, be pushed aside by others and return with water that was contaminated. Ragnar’s four children were the first to suffer from diarrhea, which further depletes an already dehydrated child of fluids. When one of his children developed jaundice, Ragnar took him to the hospital where a doctor recommended filtered water. But Ragnar couldn’t afford such a luxury. When a GFA missionary heard Ragnar’s story, he brought Ragnar’s need to his congregation. Through prayer and donations, GFA was able to install a Jesus Well. Now, not only Ragnar’s family but also his entire village never have to fight for water or suffer from waterborne diseases.
Sanitation: part of the solution
In addition to giving people clean water, we also build toilets to prevent open defecation, which can contaminate drinking water and spread disease.
We also teach people proper hygiene, such as handwashing. Offering easily accessible water from our Jesus Wells encourages families to use water for hygienic purposes—a step they often skip when they must travel far distances to gather it.
The Bible states that if you give even a cup of water to another in Jesus’ name, you will surely be rewarded (Mark 9:41). Help us solve the global water crisis and build community and wellbeing in the name of Jesus by DONATING today.
Learn more about the Global Water Crisis1 “Jesus Wells.” GFA World. https://www.gfa.org/jesus-wells/. August 2022.