GFA World calls for ‘lasting solutions’ in new report on world water crisis

A new report released in the wake of World Water Day reveals that two billion people globally are struggling to find enough water to survive.

With around 40% of the world’s land surface being desert or semi-arid, about two billion people - one in every four people on the planet - are in peril, according the newly released GFA report, Solving the World Water Crisis for Good: Lasting Solutions Can Defeat an Age-Old Problem.

Released following World Water Day on 22nd March, the report highlights that millions of people rely on dirty ponds for drinking and washing, but that those water sources often contain dangerous toxins and pathogens.

Drinking contaminated water also can lead to deadly waterborne diseases such as giardia, typhoid, hepatitis A, and diarrhoea. Globally, diarrhoea kills almost 2,200 children every day, according to the USA’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

KP Yohannan, founder and Director of Gospel for Asia (GFA), explains “in many places, there simply isn’t enough water, and the water that people do have is contaminated.

“People have to choose between drinking tainted water and going thirsty - it’s sobering.

“Despite the often devastating consequences, millions of people start each day with a long trek on foot to the nearest waterhole, possibly miles away.

“Life for them becomes a dreary quest for survival.”

Yohannan, whose faith-based mission agency has helped the extreme poor in Asia for four decades, has pioneered the drilling of deep wells - up to 500 metres in depth - to tap plentiful underground reserves and bring reliable, clean water to thousands of villages where families used to drink from unreliable sources.

These deep wells - known as Jesus Wells - supply year-round clean water to villages prone to drought and water shortages, with each well serving an average of 300 people.

Because local people receive training to maintain the wells, the water keeps flowing. One team recently found a Jesus Well still going strong after 20 years --transforming the lives of hundreds of villagers.

The report also advises that Another clean water solution - the portable BioSand filter, costing around $30 - removes most contaminants from dirty water, making it 98% pure.

In the past 12 years, GFA-supported teams have distributed more than 73,000 of these household filters.

Even though improvements and advances in water-purification technology have been made, the report says much more needs to be done to solve the world’s water crisis, adding “the best solutions arise from cooperative efforts that involve (the local people).”

GFA’s latest yearly report shows that it has sponsored more than 70,000 children, conducted free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, drilled almost 4,700 clean water wells, and installed over 11,400 water filters across Asia.

For more information go www.gfaau.org