World Water Day 2022: Overuse's Impact on Groundwater

In most places where the Living Water Project has worked, wells drilled to groundwater are the primary means of a clean water source. But overuse is a serious issue, making it even more difficult to reach the groundwater supply. As the groundwater in an area is depleted, the water table lowers and can drop too low to be serviced by an existing well. In other scenarios, lowering of the water table can require an excessive amount of energy and resources to pump the groundwater to the surface. This can make such projects cost-prohibitive. 

Groundwater and surface water are connected—when groundwater is subjected to overuse, the connected lakes, streams and rivers can also be diminished. Soil compaction or collapse and saltwater intrusion in coastal areas can also impact groundwater. Saltwater intrusion occurs as groundwater is depleted to the point that saltwater moves inland and contaminates fresh water supplies.

Read other blog posts about groundwater in our World Water Day 2022 series.

World Water Day 2022: Tapping Into the Treasure of Groundwater

In many countries, access to clean drinking water depends on tapping into a hidden treasure: groundwater. Groundwater is the 2022 theme of World Water Day, celebrated every March 22 since the United Nations started the observance in 1993.

Groundwater—stored underground in a body of porous rock or sand called an aquifer—accounts for most of the world's freshwater. A water project to reach an aquifer can cost anywhere from $1,000 to a whopping $30,000. The cost depends on several factors, including how remote the location, the cost relative to the local economy and the amount of rock to drill through. The depth ranges to hit clean water can range from 50 to 500 feet.

No matter the depth or location, the Living Water Project is dedicated to finding and tapping into these sources of clean water for the millions of people in need. Thank you for your support of our work!

More Than Money: The Living Water Project Covets Your Prayers & Gifts of Time and Talent

The Living Water Project’s hundreds of volunteers and donors have collectively accomplished an enormous amount over the past 20 years: More than 400,000 people in 800-plus communities in 26 countries who previously didn’t have clean water now have access to it.

Because the Living Water Project is 100% run by volunteers and doesn’t have any paid staff, office space rental or overhead, every dollar donated goes toward clean water projects. But our all-volunteer model means we need more than money—we need YOU.

Here are five non-monetary ways you can contribute to the cause of clean water:

1. Pray for the success of our well-drilling operations. These operations are taking place or will soon take place in Guatemala, Chad, Cameroon, the Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal. Pray for the drillers in these countries who are doing the hard, on-the-ground (and in-the-ground!) work.

2. Pray for our on-the-ground partners. We have long-time partnerships with Final Command Ministries, Exile International, ADICAY, Chikondi Health, Namwianga Mission, One World Health and others. Pray for our friends in these organizations who work closely with the communities who need wells.

3. Share your skills, talents and time. Do you enjoy planning, logistics and organization? Volunteer to help plan, run and staff our events. Have a talent for photography, graphic design or web design? We can plug you into our communications work. Have a gift for speaking? Share the story of the Living Water Project in your circle of friends and colleagues. No matter your skills, we can use your generous heart and hands.

4. Use your influence to share Living Water Project information. Follow our accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and give our posts a boost with your likes and shares. If you know a social media influencer, ask if that person would be interested in learning more about LWP and promoting our social posts to their numerous followers.

5. Choose the Living Water Project to be your Amazon Smile recipient. By choosing our organization to receive your Amazon Smile funds, a portion of your Amazon purchases will go directly to the Living Water Project.

Shattering Records for Clean Water in 2021: The Living Water Project’s Year in Review

In 2021, the Living Water Project celebrated its 20th year of partnering with communities around the world to provide clean water. As of the end of 2021, this ministry has funded 768 wells or clean water projects in 26 countries. 

These projects represent a total of $2,139,220 committed to clean water development since our founding.

Here are answers to frequently asked questions:

How many projects were constructed in 2021?
In 2021, LWP funded a total of 93 new wells/clean-water projects (61 new wells and 32 rehabilitated wells), with a total of $337,682 committed to these projects. The total dollars committed to clean water are an all-time single-year record.

Where did these wells and clean water projects take place?
Here is the breakdown of projects by country:

How many people are benefitting from these 93 wells? 
Though we often don’t get exact numbers on how many people are using wells, most wells can serve about 500 people on a regular basis. Based on these numbers from our partners and based on the varying size of the villages we serve, we estimate that 40,000 or more people are drinking clean water at the end of 2021 than at the beginning of the year.

Did you go anywhere new in 2021?
Yes, God led us to begin working in Mali in early 2021 with our outstanding in-country partner Final Command Ministries. A total of nine new wells with solar pumps and water towers have already been constructed there, each serving about 1,000 people.

How much was raised?
Generous donors contributed $503,873 in 2021. This is an all-time single-year LWP record, and is 54% higher than the previous year’s record of $326,802.

What’s on the horizon?
Our board met in early January to start 2022 with $124,900 in funding for an additional 34 wells in Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Guatemala and Liberia. Some of these wells have already been drilled! We also have long lists of villages ready for wells in Ghana, Mali, Zambia and other countries. We are particularly excited about broadening our well maintenance and well rehabilitation programs in multiple countries.

Thank you to our friends and donors for your contributions to this work in 2021. We look forward to a great 2022 and all that God has planned. What an incredible legacy our founder Shanon Dickerson left for us, and how faithful the Lord has been through the years!

—Jon Lee, president, Living Water Project

A Bold Vision for 2022: Help Living Water Project Double the Impact of $100,000 Corporate Gift

December 9, 2021

Dear Living Water Project Community,

As we experience all the blessings of this season of joy, peace and love, we reflect on a wonderful year for the Living Water Project. As board members, we feel privileged to help lead a community that cares deeply for the cause of clean water and believes in the power of partnership to change people’s lives for good.

Along with gratitude, we are excited for 2022 and working toward a bold vision for the future of this organization. At our board meeting on December 1, we identified specific projects in four countries that need wells drilled in early 2022. The people in these villages certainly need these wells, and our drilling partners are ready to drill—the ONLY limiting factor on how many get constructed is funding.

We are thrilled to announce that we have a huge jump-start on these projects: Our friends at Inflo Design Group, a Franklin, Tenn.-based engineering firm specializing in water resources, has pledged a generous corporate gift of $100,000.  

Emboldened by this incredible gift, we now challenge you and other benevolent companies like Inflo Design Group to DOUBLE this total in the remaining weeks of 2021. That could mean:

• Instead of 4 wells in Ghana with our ministry partner Paul Partey … We could drill 8!

• Instead of 7 wells in Chad and northern Cameroon with our ministry partner Samba Paul … We could drill 14!

• Instead of 3 wells in Liberia with our ministry partner Alfred Beyan … We could drill 6!

• Instead of 4 wells in Senegal with our ministry partner Final Command Ministries … We could drill 8!

In human terms, instead of 10,000 people helped by clean water projects, we could change the lives of close to 20,000 people! It’s an ambitious but attainable goal that we know we can reach with your assistance.

Please consider how you can contribute to help us DOUBLE the impact of this $100,000 gift. Whether you give $10, $100, $1,000 or more, we assure you that your year-end gift will not stay in the bank: Your donations will go directly—and speedily—to the cause of clean water. Thank you for donating today at this link.

Sincerely,
The Living Water Project Board of Directors

'Sacred Experiences' in Guatemala and Mali

The Living Water Project helped in the planning, design, funding and construction of a new drinking water system for the community of Los Limones, Guatemala. We were honored to work with our incredible partners at Lipscomb University's Peugeot Center and with Adicay, a nonprofit organization focused on the economic development of Guatemala's rural communities. Look out for future posts to learn more about this wide-ranging—and life-saving—project.

In September, Board members Jon Lee and Kevin Colvett visited four villages in Mali where the Living Water Project has funded wells. Each village—Soukoun, Sanou and Kamale—greeted them with a celebration, ceremony and even traditional tribal dancing. "It's a blessing to have these sacred experiences," Jon says.

We recently received the following letter from our partner in Mali:

“We do appreciate your efforts for both the  past and the present wells approved for this nation. We believe that it won't be only for the sake of clean water, but to also save as a living water to flow in their lives. We are grateful my brother. A big thanks to the entire leadership team.”

Blessings,
Augustine Kawa

See our posts on Instagram and Facebook to see photos from Guatemala and Mali of smiling faces blessed by clean water.

'Zonuts for Zambia' Fall Fundraiser Raises More Than $43k

Living Water Project’s Fall "Zonuts for Zambia" Fundraiser on August 28 was a great success—and a delicious one at that! The come-and-go breakfast event featured Zambian-style doughnuts and coffee served outdoors at the Otter Creek Church pavilion. A special program and video highlighted our current and future projects with our longstanding Zambian partners, Shadreck and the Zambia Mission Fund team.

The pledges keep rolling in, but the event raised more than $43,000 for worldwide projects!

Water scarcity affects nearly 2/3 of the global population, but these problems are solvable with your help! Thank you for your support of this event and all our projects throughout the year.

New Video Spotlights LWP’s History in Zambia

You won't want to miss our new video spotlighting our decade of work in Zambia. LWP board member and water engineer Kevin Colvett details the demographics and current issues in Zambia that are causing a great need for clean water. He also introduces our longtime partners, explains the projects we’ve done thus far, and outlines our hopes and dreams for future projects there.

To see the YouTube video, visit https://youtu.be/-KRtVp6ZTns. Please donate to our work in Zambia and other countries at www.livingwaterwells.org/donate.

How to Become a Monthly Donor—And Why It Helps

Ever wonder why organizations encourage people to become monthly donors?

Monthly donors add stability to a charity's work and allow for more tactical planning. For the Living Water Project in particular, having funds available at the right time makes such a difference. Many of the countries where we fund projects have a rainy season when wells cannot be dug, but as soon as the rainy season is over, it’s helpful for those funds to be at the ready!

These regular funds also allow us to plan further in advance, a helpful strategy for an all-volunteer organization like ours. If we know we can depend on a certain amount of resources each month, we can let our partners on the ground know when to expect a well project can start.

It's easy to become a monthly LWP donor. Check out our Donate page.

In Loving Memory: Our Memorial Well Program

In February 2020, a new Living Water Project well at the Trawa School in Ghana was dedicated in memory of Andrew Rieder, who passed away in 2013. (Though the children look very serious in this picture, board members Jon Lee and Kevin Colvett assure us that they saw many smiling faces when they visited the site in March 2019!)

In the past few years, the Rieder family has funded several wells in Andrew’s honor through the Living Water Project’s Memorial Well Program. We are humbled by their gifts.

Families like the Rieders find that funding the construction of a well project is a unique and meaningful way to honor the memory of a loved one who has passed, while also having a tangible, long-term impact on people who need clean water.

The Memorial Well Program offers families flexibility and creativity in bestowing their gifts. Sometimes families give a single gift that is sufficient to cover the cost of a well. Other times families encourage their community to make gifts to the Living Water Project “in lieu of flowers” for their loved ones.

Once funds have been raised, Living Water team members, consulting with the family, find an upcoming water project that is a good fit. When the memorial well is completed and water is flowing, Living Water sends the family several photos of the well and a report along with its location.

The Memorial Well Program is a great example of how the Living Water Project works in collaboration with donors, in-country partners, board members and drillers to bring clean water to those who need it. And it’s such a beautiful tribute to someone’s memory—making love manifest in the form of clean water.

Interested in learning more? We are happy to talk you through the possibilities. Please contact us through this link.