“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.”
- John 4:14a
During my weekly language lesson, my very patient language instructor and I discuss many aspects of life, the hospital, and the community.
Not infrequently, we speak about water.
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Part of the 650m hand dug trench between our new wells and the hospital property
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My instructor lives in town, walking several kilometres to the hospital to teach us missionaries Malagasy. For the past few months, her water comes on randomly once a week, which means if she is working, she might miss it. If she does get to fill everything, she can manage for about a week. This means collecting water for drinking, bathing, toilet flushing, dishes, laundry etc. It’s no small task to live without water. She is on alert 24hrs a day for when it may come on.Water is a limited resource here in Mandritsara. People spend a significant portion of their day hauling water from hand-dug wells to their homes, often over great distances, or throughout the night. One of our friends was telling us they are sometimes up half the night to gather what they need. Sometimes, they end up sharing with neighbours, who don't have running water in their homes at all.
And many of these well sources are also drying up.
Another friend, and department head at the hospital, shared with us last week that him and his wife were considering leaving Mandritsara. They couldn't see a way out of this desperate situation.
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| The LIFT electrical team in action! |
But things are beginning to change.
This month marked a major turning point for the hospital. Until now, the hospital has been dependent on two very low-producing wells. A team of Irish electricians with an organization called Labor in Faith & Trust, arrived at the end of June and completed the final stages of a massive year long electrical upgrade. We successfully re-wired every building on the entire hospital compound and also moved the main electrical room, making it safe, efficient, reliable and expandable. A new generator, funded by our supporters, was also installed and is now providing consistent reliable power to the entire hospital.
It has been a huge undertaking, to say the least. All materials had to be engineered in advance and shipped from 1000km away, or sometimes even internationally. Our hospital workers spent weeks digging a total of 2km of trenches to lay the groundwork for this upgrade.
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| Many trenches needed |
What does all this have to do with the water shortage? New electrical upgrades were critical to providing power to the pumps and controls for the two new high-volume wells. Thank you for supporting the engineering for this water/electrical project!
Never before has the hospital had so much water.
We pumped 60,000L in 24hrs using our 3 new wells (also funded by you, in partnership with the Madagascar Water Project). This is almost 10x the amount of water we could produce before.
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| Now always full!! |
In fact, since long before we lived here, the hospital tractor has hauled water from the river in town each day for months at a time in order to meet the hospital's daily needs. But now, there are plans to use the tractor to bring water from the hospital to town to assist hospital employees in receiving clean water. Thanks be to God!
Talk about a transformation! In the words of the friend we mentioned above, "Now we think we can stay - we have hope".
One of the partners who worked with us told us "you have shown me the power the prayer." We are truly grateful to God for the success of this project
Water brings life.
Water brings hope.
And hope is what we live for!
So thank you for praying.
Thank you for contributing.
Thank you for enabling us to help see transformational change to an area with such basic needs.
Thank you for impacting surgery and healthcare in this region.
“Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life”
- John 4:14b
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| Old (decommissioned) Electrical Room |
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| New Electrical Room |
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New 100KVA Generator powering light for
surgeries, pumps for water, and power to an entire hospital. |
