WILLS POINT, Texas – Gospel for Asia has just released a significant Special Report in conjunction with the international observance of World Water Day on March 22nd.
If we take anything for granted, it is water. Like the air, it is always there. With water being so commonly available, why would there even be a day dedicated to it? The Gospel for Asia (GFA) Special Report, “The Global Clean Water Crisis: Finding Solutions to Humanity’s Need for Pure, Safe Water,” answers that question.
The 8,400-word document exposes little-known facts about the global water crisis, particularly the critical lack of access to clean drinking water for billions of people on our planet.
The report probes beyond the scarcity for millions of people living in abject poverty in rural areas where their only water sources are often contaminated and where no reliable means of purification exist. Noting the current water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, the report reveals that at least 10 other major cities around the globe are facing looming clean water crises in one form or another due to drought, inadequate reserves for growing populations, and failure to adequately maintain existing water-delivery infrastructure.
Burgeoning populations of major cities worldwide are stressing infrastructures beyond their capacity to deliver adequate clean water supplies. In other urban areas, the underground delivery systems have been neglected for years allowing contamination through unmitigated inflow from sources of pollution. Flint, Michigan, is a good example of the potential results of neglect.
Two things make it difficult for municipalities to keep their systems operating within the scope of design. First, the costs for line remediation or reconstruction are prohibitive. The complete rehabilitation of crumbling U.S. water delivery systems could cost $400 to $600 billion over 20 years. Second, proposing spending on system rehabilitation projects does not have the vote-getting, political power that economic expansion projects have.
Regardless of the causes, the global clean water supply is not only in danger, but it is trending toward potential disaster. The report notes that China’s Ministry of Water Resources recently declared a need “to fight for every drop of water or die.”
The report emphasizes that we in the West can no longer take clean water for granted. This is especially true when we realize that something can be done, if not in all cases, at least in some. This is particularly true where NGOs and governments can collaborate to supply wells and water filtration devices that could immediately reduce the annual death rate of children (361,000 per year) under the age of five due to diarrhea contracted through contaminated water. That issue alone accounts for one child death on our planet every two minutes.
Dr. K.P. Yohannan has long cited the clean water issue in South Asia as a way for those of us who are more fortunate to have an impact on those in need. He said, “Helping those who are more vulnerable and in need is not a burden or an obligation, but an opportunity to be like Christ.”
NGOs, many of them faith-based like Gospel for Asia, and national governments have undertaken the task of drilling bore wells deep enough to provide clean water for small communities and providing filtration devices that through which surface water can be rid of contaminants. Gospel for Asia has drilled more than 18,500 Jesus Wells in the past three years, which provide clean, drinking water to at least 300 people a day for up to 20 years! At least one other organization has embarked on a promising project that can create water out of the moisture in the air.
The only way we can stop taking clean water for granted is by educating ourselves on the scarcity of it and the need to eliminate wasting water and preserving what we have.
The Special Report is available here.
About Gospel for Asia
Founded over thirty years ago, Gospel for Asia has brought humanitarian assistance and spiritual help to millions of people in more than 14 nations across Asia. Via their radio ministry, they have also spread their message of hope in 110 languages.
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