09/14/2012

Water and Sustainability

In biblical times, water was a mixed blessing at best.  Necessary for life, and often sent as a blessing, it was also associated with chaos and death. 

In many communities where ELCA and LWR work, water can also be a mixed blessing.  The water, when available, is swimming with life, but it is far from life giving.  Parasites, bacteria, and other microorganisms lurk in the waters causing illness.  Where it is scarce, it means lack of food and most often starvation and death.

Africa, like other parts of the world, is currently in the midst of a drought, and a food crisis.  But, believe it or not, even in the midst of a drought, there is water to be found in Africa—and Lutherans are helping farmers get to it.

In some regions of arid and semi-arid countries like Niger, supplies of underground water are held in place by naturally formed dams, which keep the water at a level where it can be accessed through wells.  But in some communities, there are no natural dams so the underground water flows away and the water level is dropping.  To get to water, people have to drill deeper, a costly and time-consuming process.

In these areas, Lutherans are helping farmers improve their agricultural livelihoods, adapt to changing climate patterns and help struggling farmers use their resources in more sustainable ways.

To improve access to water, Lutherans, their partners, and farmers worked together in Niger to build a subsurface dam to make water easier to obtain.  A subsurface dam is an underground, waterproof barrier made from dry sand and rock that collects and holds water from underground streams.

As the dam collects water, it raises the water level so that farmers can access it more easily.  This saves the farmers the time and expense of drilling for water.

Lutheran World Relief and its partners use a cash-for-work approach to build the dams.  The projects will have both immediate and long term benefits.  Farmers, who helped build the dam and did other work to protect and improve soil and water sources, received wages they could use to support their families.

So far, 51,422 people have participated in the cash-for-work project and the dams have been so successful the program has caught the attention of civil engineers.  They are calling for the construction of even more subsurface dams in other areas, so that more people can experience the same kind of success. 

To learn more about the water, wells, and dams projects, visit Lutheran World Relief at www.lwr.org/water, or Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at www.elca.org/water.