Church Helps Bring Water
to African Community
Continued
Description
Congolese children help bring pipes to those working on the clean water project.
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Humanitarian
service missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints knew the Church was in a position to
assist. After much discussion and review of what would be
required to pipe clean water 19 miles through five
communities, the Church helped to fund the project.
The Church pledged not only money but, also engineering services. A Church representative in the area, Celestin Kubangila Kamanda, said the people are grateful to the Church for providing the means to complete the project.
“The people have
said the Church has given a great lesson about charity and
the golden rule,” Said Kamanda.
A water
distribution system of smaller pipes will take the water
throughout the village of Tshiabobo to 40 water stations.
All the trenches are hand dug by the people in the villages
who will receive the water. On one given day, 83 people were
requested to clear foliage to make room for the pipeline,
and 206 showed up to work.
A significant
benefit of this type of water line is it requires no pump or
electricity. Spring-capture systems require virtually no
maintenance and they last three times longer compared to
wells. Even in the dry season, the spring source for the
project continues to flow at over six gallons per second.
The people have
contributed $3,000, which they used to develop the spring
sources. Residents will manage the gravity-fed system
through a community water and sanitation board. The board’s
charge is to ensure water quality, determine fees and
perform regular maintenance.
The completion of the first phase of the Luputa water line includes a nine inch pipe which feeds water from a nearby source and carries it nine miles to the village of Tshiabobo. Phases two and three include extending the pipeline another ten miles to Luputa. Once the entire project is complete more than 166,000 people will have clean water.
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