The Gift of Clean Drinking Water

The village of Beaumont, Haiti now has access to clean drinking water.  No more going to the river, well or spring.  Beaumont is located high in the mountains in the middle of the southern peninsula.  It's a bustling village and since it is on the main Cayes to Jeremie road across the mountains, it is frequently where buses and other travelers stop for a meal, to get supplies or gas up before continuing on their way.  As with the majority of villages, getting clean drinking water has always been a challenge.

Hope Church of Springfield, Illinois is the C3 partner church to Beaumont Baptist Church.  Together they have been working to minister to the community.  The leadership of Beaumont Baptist felt that providing clean drinking water would make a significant difference.  Hope Church committed to financing the project.  It took two years for RMI to work out the many details, but the water system was dedicated this summer when Hope Church visited their C3 partner.

It is a business managed by a committee made up of some people from the church and as well as town leaders.  It is open to everyone and people come with their 5-gallon jugs or buckets or whatever they have to fill and pay a small price per gallon.  There is also a machine that fills small, single-serving bags with water which are then sold by street vendors. 

It comes from a spring which is pumped into large holding tanks.  It's then purified via reverse osmosis and, as a result, is clean to drink.  A water company from Port-au-Prince installed the system.  Part of the profit from the sales goes to support the church and the Hope for Kidz Program.  It has already been a huge blessing not only to the church and its neighbors but to many communities in the area who can now purchase locally sourced water. 

Having clean drinking water will greatly reduce the water-borne illnesses that they have had to deal with.  This project is indeed a life-changing gift.