Hydration At A Mortal Cost Or Dehydration For The Same Price?

Water is life. Whether on an individual human level, or on a global scale, this fact remains true. Our bodies are more than 60% water, it keeps our eyes clear of irritation, helps our bodies build muscles, flushes out toxins, and regulates our temperature. Without it, we would dehydrate and become weak. On a planetary level, all living things need water – plants, animals, the entire ecosystem that makes this world function. It is an obvious, inescapable fact that water is vital. Yet, there are an estimated one in four people who don’t have access to life sustaining water.

In the UK, we are blessed to have clean water from taps in our homes. But worldwide, two billion people don’t have access to safe drinking water. One region that was faced with this issue is a beautiful, green countryside village in South Asia where a young man named Akim lives. When Balash, a GFA World supported worker, arrived at this village and began getting to know Akim and his family, he discovered that all of its wells led only to murky, dirty water.

This presents an unfair choice; succumb to the human need for hydration and take refreshment even from unclean water, risking life and health, or risk life regardless by avoiding accessible dirty water and travelling long distances in search for clean water: Hydration at a mortal cost or dehydration for the same price?

We have found that most people faced with this choice do the best they can for themselves and their families, like all of us try to. This often means women travelling hours alone to collect a paltry amount of water, from the best source they can find, but which nonetheless often contains deadly germs. They choose hydration but try to lower the risk, even if they cannot eliminate it altogether, for themselves and their children. It’s an unimaginable choice to those of us lucky enough to have taps in our homes, but it’s one that billions of people make every single day.

Balash was struck that everyone in Akim’s village, from babies to the elderly, had to drink this dangerous water. Many in the village had serious illnesses like typhoid. Balash got to speak with Akim about the dire situation.

“We never knew the real taste of water,” said 21-year-old Akim. “We’ve suffered from many sicknesses”.

Akim told Balash how he had watched his neighbours and friends suffer because of diseases from the water. Villagers had been confined to their beds with high fevers, nausea, and endless pain. Due to this sickness, they were unable to work and fell deeper into starvation and poverty while children were too sick to go to school. Without antibiotics and continuing to drink the dirty water to try and stay cool, many tragically lost their lives. Akim spoke about how he half-expected to suffer the same fate every time he drank or washed. GFA has been able to support Balash and the village’s local church to build BioSand filters, which purify water by up to 98%, for 150 families in Akim’s village. As well as providing BioSand filters to other regions in Asia and Africa, GFA have also been able to build clean water wells which we refer to as Jesus Wells.

This World Water Day, we as a charity wanted to bring these harsh realities to the UK public. It can be easy in our comfortable homes to forget that the world is in the midst of a huge struggle for clean water.  

Our national missionaries, like Balash, provide villages with Jesus Wells and BioSand filters to give people access to clean water. They do this in the name of Jesus, who offers living water. We know that when Jesus talked about the water of life, He didn’t just mean drinking water. He meant the life-changing message of God’s love, leading to eternal life. Our national missionaries help provide life-saving clean water and they also share the life-transforming love of God.

After Akim’s village received the BioSand filters, he said

Now, we can drink pure water and be able to provide pure and clean water to others who come to our home. I am grateful to the church for providing a BioSand water filter to me.

If you would like to find out how to support GFA’s global clean water initiatives, visit: gfauk.org/clean-water

Written by: Priscilla Obilana