CBN's Operation Blessing Rallies on 'World Water Day' to Bring Clean Water to Struggling Communities

More than two billion people around the world don't have access to safe drinking water. So Wednesday, March 22 has been named World Water Day to draw attention to this critical global need.

Clean water access is precious, and people who don't have it are suffering daily. Since 1993, the world has taken one day a year to unite around clean water as one of our greatest common needs. This World Water Day is about accelerating change to solve the water crisis. 

CBN's Operation Blessing is doing its part to increase access to clean water around the world.  One of those examples is in Yargüera, Honduras. Families there have water access from hand-dug wells around their small community. They know it might make them and their children sick. They boil and strain the dirty, often contaminated water, but it's not enough. 

Michel shared, "I drank some water because I was very tired. Minutes later, I had a big stomachache. I told my dad that I didn't feel well and needed to take medicine; I felt like I was being attacked in my stomach. I took some medicine, but the pain wouldn't go away."

It's terrible to have to fear something you need to survive. The good news is, Operation Blessing is working to rewrite this remote community's story to give them a water system delivering clean water to the nearly 140 people.

This community now has hope and a new future. The constant danger of waterborne illness has faded as every household gets the chance to access clean water.

Here's how you can join with Operation Blessing to deliver clean water and show this community God's love today.

As CBN News reported late last month, safe drinking water is also a major need following disasters such as the Turkey earthquakes. CBN's Operation Blessing has come up with a solution.

Jose Esquer, Operation Blessing's on-site water engineer, said of the scene in Turkey and Syria, "This area of the country is almost lost... In some other disasters, it's a fraction (of an area) and even in that fraction, it's not general (or widespread). This earthquake is like off the charts." 

He added, "Right now there is bottled water but there is not enough bottled water. So, we are looking for solutions."

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Now Operation Blessing has set up a reverse osmosis system to take undrinkable water and make it safe. 

Esquer showed CBN News the process of making the water safe. First, he took some of the well water from a storage tank. 

"You see the difference of the water," he said. "It has a lot of (metals) and also a lot of minerals, calcium. Definitely not drinkable." 

After measuring the contaminants, Esquer got a reading of more than 1,000, indicating high contamination. 

"It may have something like excessive minerals, excessive some metals even, and that is something that we are not going to allow let us happen on our watch. So let's go to the kitchen," Esquer suggested.

In the kitchen, he showed us how they take the contaminated water and make it safe for cooking and drinking. Afterward, he took his instrument to measure again, and it dropped from over 1,000 to about 50.    

Esquer compared the before and after water sources. "This is the water from the well. Right now if you open the faucet you will have this (undrinkable water). And this is the one that comes from the reverse osmosis system. And this is totally drinkable... The water that we have is perfect. It's safe." 

Contaminated water such as the water found in Turkey can cause long-term consequences.

"Toxic metals, even heavy metals, has damage in the organs for long years and when you have some symptoms, it's too late," Esquer explained.

Other research and technology have also been used for the creation of clean water. 

CLICK HERE to join Operation Blessing in its efforts to deliver clean water and God's love to communities throughout the world. 

CBN News also brought you the story about how one Israeli company Watergen has become a world leader in the groundbreaking technology of making water out of air. 

Its vision is to provide everyone with clean and safe drinking water and that vision has also helped strengthen ties between the Jewish state and the Arab world.

Watergen's technology helped make friends out of former enemies. They linked up with the Emirati company Al-Aahra Group to sign a landmark agreement in 2021 for a water research program.

"What we're doing with Watergen is bringing these two institutes together, such that with water, purified through Watergen from the air, can then be used to funnel into agriculture systems to provide horticulture in desert urban settings," Al-Aahra Group President Daniel Chamovitz told CBN News at the time. 

Watergen's biggest machines make 1,300-1,600 gallons of water a day. 

"We're going to introduce bigger machines in the future, but factories, no, because the whole idea here is about decentralization," Michael Rutman, Co-CEO of Watergen, explained. "The whole idea is to place as many small machines or medium machines all around the place and to create the water when you consume it."