Lack of Safe Water Inspires "Project Well Done"
Over a Billion People Today Have No Access to Safe Drinking Water
Jul 3, 2009
The public health domino effect of contaminated drinking water is huge. According to the World Health Organization, there are 1.2 billion people throughout the world who lack access to safe drinking water. Diarrhea, which is spread easily in an environment of poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation, kills about 2.2 million people each year, most of them children under five. This means that water-borne disease kills 6.000 children every day.
Children Taking Malaria Pills With Dirty Water
A group of young people (BRUTE LABS) dedicated to action were inspired on a trip to Ghana to bring clean water to remote villages. While traveling with Pioneers-Africa, a Christian aid organization based in Accra, they witnessed young children receiving malaria pills from a local doctor. The pills clenched tightly in their fists, they ran to a pot sitting in the sun and scooped up murky, insect-ridden water to swallow them. This group of Ghanaian children tragically taking in the cure with the very source of the illness itself inspired "Project Well Done". Since then, two wells have been successfully constructed in the Nso Nyame ye and Babianeha villages of Ghana (see photos!).
"Project Well Done" Brings Wells to Villages in Ghana
"Project Well Done" is an effort to bring clean drinking water to remote villages in rural Ghana. The name of the project stands for the belief that a simple idea and the most basic effort can radically impact and even save the lives of others. In Ghana the young Americans met Fred Dimado, National Director of Pioneers-Ghana, who was familiar with clean water projects. He had experience in implementing projects and was well respected locally. He helped to identify a community with a particularly dire water supply situation. He also initiated to form a village water committee that was closely involved in the project from its planning and construction stages to its operation and ongoing maintenance.
Community Involvement and Ownership Are Crucial
A key aspect of the project is working with the rural community. If residents don't oversee and manage the water system, it won't last. The American volunteers from Brute Labs saw many abandoned wells on their trip throughout Ghana. If projects are initiated by foreign organizations without active participation of the local community and without knowledge of the political, governmental and cultural context, they tend to fail due to maintenance problems or equipment failure.
In a different part of the world Greg Mortenson learned the same lesson drinking tea with village elders. Building schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan he realized that it is important to listen and learn from local leaders, rather than impose judgment from an outsider's perspective. Access to safe water is a human right. Without significant efforts the Millennium Development Goals related to child mortality, basic education and disease reduction will not be reached.
Read more about Project Well Done.
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