Water for South Sudan

My friend Nanette, who started me down this blogging path, has a whole section on her blog about books she’s read. Since I read about the same number of books in a year that she reads in a month, I’m not one to ask for book recommendations… However, I did just read something I would recommend, and it’s Rochester-related: A Long Walk to Water.

If you haven’t read A Long Walk to Water, you should put it on your reading list (and so should your kids). It’s a quick but powerful story, both heartbreaking and uplifting, written by local author Linda Sue Park about a local celebrity: Salva Dut. Salva endured hardships that are unimaginable to an American – years of walking, to escape war; years in refugee camps; and seeing his uncle brutally killed. That Salva not only survived, but thrived, is a wonder. One of the more than 20,000 Lost Boys of Sudan, he was taken in by a family right here in Rochester, in 1996. He learned English, worked at Wegmans, where he won customer service awards, and attended Monroe Community College. He had been separated from his family, with no knowledge of their survival, for almost 19 years, when he received word that his father was hospitalized, because of a water-borne disease that endangered his life. After reuniting with his father, who survived surgery, Salva had a dream: to build a well for his father’s village so that he wouldn’t get sick again from drinking contaminated water.

Although much of the world’s newest country sits on top of an aquifer that naturally refills in the rainy season, that water has been largely inaccessible. Instead, it is the task of women and girls to walk for hours to fetch water that generally would not be considered potable in America. With the help of St. Paul’s Episcopal and Downtown United Presbyterian Churches, Salva made the kind of connections for which the Rochester community is renowned, and turned his dream for one well into a non-profit that is changing the course of South Sudan: Water for South Sudan (WFSS). Their mission is to drill wells in villages throughout the country to provide clean drinking water, to prevent water-borne diseases, like the one that almost killed Salva’s father, and to allow the girls to pursue other activities, like going to school – something that was previously denied them.

WFSS was founded here in Rochester in 2003, and started drilling wells in 2005. To date, 282 wells have been drilled, which serve over a quarter million people every day. The organization’s goal is to drill 40 new wells per year, and also to assist in rehabilitation projects, since some of the original wells are now over 10 years old. Responsibility and sustainability are the keys to the success of the organization and the communities it serves. The locals have input in deciding where to locate the wells, and local maintenance committees are in charge of the wells’ upkeep. While the lack of infrastructure and the political strife are challenges, WFSS and the local teams are working with the South Sudan government to implement the wells, and the conflict is mostly in areas remote from the villages being served.

WFSS is completely privately funded, through the support of individuals, schools, civic and religious groups, and Rotary Clubs. Donors come from all 50 states and 33 countries. Since inception, they have raised about $6.5 million; each well costs an average of $15,000 to drill, and the organization has very little overhead. School groups, in particular, have been extremely effective fundraisers. Students find that reading the book and fundraising for a well not only connects them tangibly to the wider world, but also changes their lives and their perspectives. They start to understand water as a precious resource, they put their creativity to use in raising money, and their efforts are rewarded with the knowledge of specific people they have helped.

In addition to providing clean drinking water, these wells provide the basis for two other basic human conditions we take for granted in America: hygiene and sanitation. WFSS is engaged in hygiene education in these villages, for example, teaching locals the benefits of washing with soap and water, and brushing their teeth. They have recently started to move into sanitation, and are looking at ways to provide effective and sustainable toilets (it’s a sad comment on the state of humanity that more people in the world have cell phones than access to a toilet). And they have provided the ability for communities in South Sudan to build schools and clinics, something previously unimaginable, thus unlocking the potential for the next generation.

Clean, fresh drinking water. It’s easy to take it for granted here in Rochester, with our proximity to the Great Lakes, and the 20% of the world’s surface fresh water they represent. It’s also easy to take it for granted that our state will continue to protect the lakes and reservoirs that source our drinking water, for now…

Here's a link to a recent tedx talk by Salva Dut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWlNdnFicLE