300 Wells
Jun 02, 2011It’s March 30, 2011 in Northwestern Sudan and the eight men known as Water Is Basic Team B kick clods from their muddy boots. They’re tidying up the worksite — stacking pipe, cleaning gear, securing tools in the truck for a bumpy ride to the next location.
And they’re smiling.
They have worked together for three years, braving rainy seasons, rig repairs, stuck vehicles, long trips away from home, threats from animal attack, threats from people, and even an arrest. All that to arrive at this place. Akoite Payam on the Darfur border. Another camp. Another swarm of grateful people. Another muddy mess to clean up. This one is like all the rest save for its number. 300. As their caravan lurches away from the worksite in the evening dusk, they all know where they’re headed — a day’s drive toward Abyei where the team leader can get reception for his cell phone and report that Water Is Basic well #300 is working. More than half a million Sudanese have access to clean water now who didn’t have before.
It’s a remarkable milestone even among a seeming torrent of milestones flowing out of Sudan these days. An end to decades of war, a historic vote, a new nation, a global humanitarian effort, a million newly displaced persons with rising hopes of having a home. According to Water Is Basic President Steve Roese, that hope is what these teams are really drilling for.
“These are truly desperate people,” Roese said. “I’ve seen some of them just sleeping under trees. They don’t even have enough to make a hut.”
So progress is not just measured in boreholes but in health, education and souls. The villages receiving new wells have been transformed by those wells. Children can attend school instead of spending hours fetching water. Neighboring tribes live in relative peace instead of fighting over springs. There is less disease and better hygiene. Meanwhile, since drilling began, every member of the Water Is Basic teams has trusted Christ and been baptized in water from wells they drilled.
Water Is Basic is a non-profit organization birthed from the leadership at Irving Bible Church over four years ago in response to the dire need for clean water in Sudan. For most of its existence, Water Is Basic focused on bringing clean water to Sudan’s south, the less developed half of the country where one in eight children was dying of water-related illness. Now, after the January referendum that officially separated the country into halves, both Water Is Basic crews have taken the opportunity to move north and west toward the war-torn region of Darfur.
“We sent rigs up there right after the referendum when we saw that it was going to be relatively safe,” Roese said.
Now, the crews are serving people who are not only poor, but poor and displaced. Thousands of South Sudanese have been fleeing the predominantly Muslim North where there is talk of instituting Sharia law once the South officially becomes its own nation in July. The need is enormous. Luckily, the Water Is Basic crews are getting faster.
“The first 100 wells, we took things slower,” Roese said. “We wanted to make sure we really understood the logistics of drilling, maintaining, inspecting for disease, making sure we had a system that works.” That first year, Water Is Basic drilled 73 wells. Water from each well is tested for viruses and other contaminants. Then the well is handed over to a local council — sort of a utility cooperative — trained in testing, and charged with protecting, maintaining and governing use of the well.
The second year saw 121 new wells and the addition of a second crew. This year the crews are again outpacing past performance.
“We’re just getting better at it, more efficient,” Roese said. “And the soils are different where we are now, not as rocky. Plus, the crews have been away from their families for a long time now. I think the longer they’re gone, the faster they work.”
Still, drilling wells in the African bush is never without challenges. That softer clay-like soil in the North has caused problems with a mud pump. Travel is difficult and often interrupted by people or nature. And once, Team A was mistaken for spies and arrested.
“They were getting ready to drill and getting out all this equipment,” Roese said. “Some South Sudan police thought it looked suspicious and arrested them, but it wasn’t long or abusive. They let them go as soon as they understood what they were doing.”
For all its success (300 professionally drilled wells at an average cost of $3,470 is admirable among agencies who provide similar services), Roese said the future of Water Is Basic isn’t just in drilling faster and staying out of jail.
“I think the goal has always been for this to be self-sustaining,” he said. “I feel the need to see this all the way through until the work inside Sudan is getting all of its funds from inside the country.”
The organization is considering two avenues for creating revenue so that it can run on its own — charging for water and drilling for hire.
“Everybody on the planet pays for water,” Roese said. “Why shouldn’t they? These are hard-working people. They just haven’t had anything to work for. They’ve been caught in a cycle of poverty. If we charge as little as a penny per jerry can, the average well fills 1,000 jerry cans a day. That’s $10 a day. In one year, that pays for the well. What we want to communicate to them is, ‘You’re not paying for your well, but the next one.’”
The second plan would be to purchase a third drilling rig and use it solely for commercial purposes. Even now, there is a healthy market for these services and Roese only sees it growing as foreign firms invest in the world’s newest nation, especially with its considerable resources in oil.
“Every commercial well we put in will pay for two free wells,” Roese said.
But Roese doesn’t get too far down the nation-building track or entrepreneurial wish list before he swings the conversation back to those in need.
“When your day-to-day existence is in jeopardy, you lose hope,” he said. “If you or I lose our air conditioning at home, it’s going to change everything. We’ll do whatever we have to do to get it back. That’s what water is for these guys. Dirty water brings a lot of bad stuff — disease, sickness, death. If you stop those things, you can start to dream again.”
It takes trained eyes to spot those dreams. Hope in Sudan isn’t rising with political placards or stock indexes. It’s measured in corrugated metal.
“In the six years since they’ve had the peace treaty, I’ve seen differences every time I fly in,” he said. “There used to not be any metal roofs on anything. Now most buildings have it. Why? Because if you’re expecting to flee for your life, you don’t invest in anything you can’t take with you.”