NuWaterWorks Volunteer Impacted by Water Treatment Plant Tour

Doug Botzum, NuWaterWorks Volunteer, writes a personal reflection on how a tour of a local water treatment plant has impacted his consideration for those who don’t have direct access to clean water in the developing world.

“In June, NuWaterWorks’ volunteers had the opportunity to tour the White House Utility District (WHUD) water treatment plant located in Madison, TN. This tour allowed us to see how this plant is able to produce millions of gallons of water a day for the local communities that WHUD services by pulling water from the Cumberland River and processing it to provide drinking water to homes in the area.

Personally, I was hoping we could leverage some of the methods and concepts we would see at their facility to help us provide clean water solutions to regions of the world we are partnering with that struggle with getting easy access to clean water. The eye-opening part of their whole operation is that nothing they were doing seemed to be “rocket science” technology. They use very basic methods and materials, like sand and charcoal. It's just scaled up to process large volumes of water without interruption day after day.

Pat, a representative of the White House Utility District water treatment plant, educates the team on one of multiple water pumps that are used to draw water from Old Hickory Lake in Madison, TN to send in to their water treatment plant.

Our Ugandan friend, Moses Ssekabira.

This experience was brought to a whole other level of reality when we were able to hear from one of our team members, Moses Ssekabira about his personal experience in Uganda. He told of the extreme efforts they would have to go through to get water for his family. Moses shared about his 45-minute walk down to the water source just to fill up two 5-gallon (40 lbs) containers of water. Then he’d travel back uphill, with all this weight, to walk another 45 minutes to his house, only to have approximately 10 gallons of water to use for bathing, cooking, etc. This is a basic need we take for granted day in and day out. I was nearly in tears listening to Moses tell his story, realizing how much work it was for him to just get a little bit of water to function, to live, and to survive.

Questions I Ponder:

This open water source was said to serve up to 800 people, majority children, in a village area of Uganda.

1. Why is it that I was born where I have this convenience yet so many others like Moses were born where this basic need is so difficult to come by?………………..WHY?

2. Is it because they did something wrong where they don’t deserve it?………………..NO

3. Is it because these people don’t matter?………………..NO

4. Is it because they don’t know God and he has not yet blessed them?………………..NO

5. Is it because the technology is too expensive to make it happen?………………..I don’t know

6. Is it because this has not become a priority enough by those who can bring solutions?………………..Maybe

Pat showing the NuWaterWorks team the process of how water flows through the plant in order to purify the water.

The technology for this type of water treatment has been around for more than 100 years. What is it going to take for us to bring these solutions to everyone around the world who needs it? All I know is that I am stirred by this inequality. I would hope to God that if the birth places were switched and I was born in one of these regions without reliable access to one of my basic survival needs, water, that someone who does have access to the potential solutions would do everything in their power to help me. I am awakened and stirred and I hope you are too. Please join our mission to work to bring solutions to our brothers and sisters around the world. Let us change this equation, so we all have equal opportunities to access clean water.”

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