Like many countries in Asia, increasing population, and economic, agricultural and industrial expansion in Thailand are the major causes of the deterioration of water quality in various water sources. High loading of pollutants from human activities beyond the water-resource-carrying capacity has contributed to degradation of water quality throughout the country.1
As a result, most Thai people are at a health risk due to the poor quality of drinking water. Approximately 43 million are drinking contaminated water. This, along with poor sanitation and insufficient hygiene, contributes to the spread of serious diseases such as helminthes, diarrhea, dysentery and typhoid.
The northeastern part of the country, which occupies one-third of the country’s total land area, is the most populous and lowest income region. Although Thailand is considered to be economically relatively advanced among developing countries, rural people are still poor, earning between $3 to $5 a day working in the fields (when there is work). Sources say that there is about a six-fold difference in average per capita income between the citizens of Bangkok and the rural areas.2
Since this northeastern area is considered mostly rural, most people don’t have resources to purchase bottled water at $0.25 for approximately 15 liters.
Due to this need, in November 2011, GAiN drilled their first water well in the village of Nong Kung, which is in the northeastern part of Thailand.
As a result, 5,000 people from across four villages now have access to disease-free water. The well is 48 meters deep, with a six-meter tower and two 2,500 liter water tanks.
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"The stark contrast between life with clean water and the struggle for existence without it stood out the most to me," shares Rebecca Hey, GAiN’s Senior Grants Administrator, from her first trip to the Lindi District in Tanzania.
In July 2011, Rebecca, Dennis Fierbach, the Director of Water Strategies, and Jennifer Mullan, GAiN’s Marketing and Communications Manager, visited the Water for Life Initiative project in Tanzania. Over five days, twenty eight villages were visited in order to monitor the progress of the project as well as capture video footage.
In village after village, reports were given about the tremendous impact the project was making. Elderly women, who once had to rely on family members to walk long distances to fetch water for them, could now collect water from a well located right inside their village. Young children that previously experienced stomach illnesses on a regular basis were healthy and full of life. Students that used to miss hours of school a day for a single bucket of water, now attend all their classes.
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Global Aid Network (GAiN) sent their first LIFE Team to Mukti Mission in India.
Mukti is a "Christ-centered home where destitute women and children irrespective of their background are accepted, cared for, transformed, and empowered to be salt and light in the society."
As the team of ten, which consisted of a nursing student, a farmer, four counsellors, a few helpers and GAiN staff, settled in it was evident that God has provided for this ministry in many ways in the last 100 years.
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