Pictured is a Water Mission refugee settlement project which may provide clean water for 50,000 people a day or more, generating up to 350 gallons of clean safe water per minute. The above photograph is at a refugee settlement in Tanzania where hundreds of thousands of Burundians have fled to Tanzania due to violent political unrest and economic decline. Water Mission started delivering safe water in Tanzania’s refugee settlements in 2015, expanding solutions in partnership with the Poul Due Jensen Foundation.
One result from my previous blog A Long Walk to Water was reconnecting with my friend and colleague Bill Moore who volunteers with the faith-based Water Mission. Bill and I previously worked on a consulting project together and he is a very enthusiastic, caring and knowledgeable hydrogeologist. He’s progressed in his 40+ year career to achieve Vice President of several large environmental corporations. It’s wonderful seeing him use his education and extensive experience to help people around the world obtain safe drinking water. Here’s what he wrote about this blog that he shared on LinkedIn:
“I appreciate so much the work and heart of Bill Dam. Actually, in part it was Bill that, through seeing his water-related work, encouraged me to consider a volunteer role to help address the global water crisis – thus my current connection with Water Mission. Check out Bill’s blog. I have read the book he writes about – it will move your heart. Thanks for all you do Bill! And thanks to Wake County North Carolina for making the book required reading.”
I wanted to learn more about Water Mission so Bill agreed to share his experience. Here is text written by Bill Moore:
“Everything Else Changes
During a short-term work assignment in Charleston, South Carolina, several years ago, I drove past a warehouse building each day that caught my attention. While attending a conference near the end of my assignment, I met a representative who invited me to visit and tour this organization known as “Water Mission.” It was during that visit that I learned about the work they had done over the past twenty years to make a difference in the global water crisis.
The story began in 1998 when the deadliest hurricane in Central American history, Hurricane Mitch, hit Honduras. Seeing news reports of the devastation, Dr. George and Molly Greene, owners of the largest privately held analytical laboratory in the US with a focus on water, reached out to their contact in the country, an Episcopal bishop, asking how they could help. The reply came back, “We need six drinking water units.” After not being able to locate any “off-the-shelf” solutions, Dr. Greene, a PhD chemical engineer, sat down and within few hours sketched out his own design. The systems were built, tested and ready for delivery. Within the week they traveled to Honduras to deliver and setup six water treatment systems. Shortly thereafter (September 2000) the couple decided to sell their company and focus the rest of their lives working to provide access to safe water to those in desperate situations.
For over two decades, Water Mission has not only mobilized safe water relief during natural disasters around the globe, but they have also helped deliver clean water solutions to communities where 2.2 billion people live without access to safe drinking water. The statistics are staggering; 30% of the world’s population lacks safe water and one person dies every 37 seconds from a water-related illness. This includes 297,000 children annually under five with half of the hospital beds in developing countries filled with people suffering waterborne illnesses. Over their history, Water Mission has brought clean water solutions to 7,000,000 people in 57 countries with the completion of about 2,800 projects. Over recent months, in addition to their work in the nine countries where they have in-country teams, Water Mission has responded to help the overflow of refugees from the war in Ukraine, from the catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, and Hurricane Fiona which hit Puerto Rico in September.
Their past work in Haiti, subsequent to Hurricane Matthew (2016), was recently tested. Would the systems they had set up survive when the next earthquake hit the nation? Knowing that Haiti sits in a seismically active area, the organization’s engineering team took that into account and designed treatment systems and structures to withstand future seismic events. Of the 40 projects they built, 38 of them remained functional following the August 2021 quake - a remarkable design success underscoring their emphasis on technical excellence and providing long-term sustainable solutions. In the open fields of the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in western Tanzania, Water Mission erected a 100,000-watt solar panel array to power the treatment and pumping of water for more than 250,000 displaced people. Similar projects have been constructed in two other large refugee camps. With so many of their projects off-the-grid, their designs require self-contained solar and sustainable energy sources. Having become one of the industry’s recognized experts with solar energy in rural and “end-of- road settings”, they were recently invited to partner with UNICEF to author the “Solar Powered Water Systems Design and Installation Guide”. This first-of-its-kind resource provides detailed instruction for fulfilling the internationally recognized technical standards for implementing solar powered water systems in rural settings. To complement this point, a 2017 audit of groups working in Ugandan refugee camps specifically highlighted Water Mission’s success. “Water Mission stands out as the nongovernmental organization with enough in-house expertise to independently design, operate, and maintain solar water schemes,” reads the International Organization for Migration’s associated report.
While attending Water Mission’s 2022 Strategic Partners Summit, three things stood out to me. First, there is an emphasis on collaboration regardless of who gets the credit to find better solutions to address global safe water needs. Next, several Fortune 500 companies which are actively involved in partnering with Water Mission. And finally, there is vision and creativity to think outside the box in the pursuit of emerging solutions that will result in major steps forward to ultimately solve the global water crisis.
These global accolades and corporate confirmations are powerful and well-deserved, but for me the words of Scott Linebrink, a former professional baseball pitcher now on staff with Water Mission, say it all. In talking to host Mohammed Abdalla on his Thinking Green Podcast series, Scott recently stated, “You can change the trajectory of an entire community that has never had safe water. They have spent generations living with bad water. The minute that you put in a system, that is not going to be the case anymore – it is the greatest before and after project that I’ve ever seen because everything else changes after the water system comes in.” This is why I and so many others choose to come along side of Water Mission to bring answers to one of the world’s most intimidating challenges.” References: Charleston - the City Magazine (December 2021); Water Mission website
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