My Nonprofit Reviews

In September had I the chance to travel with Steve Roese and the local team to visit the work in Northern Bahr el Ghazel. I was blown away by the impact Water is Basic and the well repair mechanics are having in their local communities. As I watched the skilled mechanics fix a well near Aweil, it was hard to grasp the fact that this wasn’t normal.

The vast majority of people in South Sudan lack access to clean drinking water. Women and young girls walk hours a day to provide enough potable water for their families to survive, sacrificing their education, safety, and infant care in the process. While hundreds of wells and boreholes have been constructed across South Sudan, a crippling problem remains: wells break and there is no local mechanic expertise or supply chain to address this issue. Water Is Basic recognizes that this need can only be fully solved by engaging people directly impacted. The work to train local, female-led mechanic teams to repair wells is doing more than just solving a fundamental problem. It provides a way for local communities to take greater ownership over their future. Communities are willingly paying for the mechanics’ work and contributing to the cost of replacement parts. This is increasing the possibility of stability within the region but also creating jobs and the opportunity for men and women mechanics to work side-by-side to lift up their communities by providing one of the most fundamental needs: access to clean water.

I don’t think you could find a better example of what it looks like to be locally led and operated. I applaud Water is Basic and their program WESI (Woman’s Empowerment Solutions Initiative) for taking the “road less traveled” and focusing on developing sustainable solutions for the people in South Sudan.