Home to 280 men, women, and children is the village of Wakau; a remote community on the bank of the Bamu River, Western Province.
When the YWAM Medical Ships team first set foot in Wakau, one of the first things they noticed was the two water tanks that lay near the bank of the river, unused. They soon found out that the people drank straight from a muddy creek.
The tanks had been donated 15 months ago, but didn’t come with any taps or fittings.
The MV YWAM PNG’s deck and engineering team met with Wakau’s village leaders and offered their assistance with getting the tanks operational. The leaders agreed to build a platform by noon the following day, and together they would put the tanks on the stand, build a roof, connect the guttering, and fit the taps.
The men in the village got started on the construction straight away, and by the following morning, the platform was built, and guttering and corrugated iron had been sourced ready for their afternoon project.
Together, the YWAM Medical Ships crew and the men in the village secured the tanks on the platform, built a roof, and attached the guttering and tap fittings.
Afterwards they celebrated their completed project and prayed for rain to fill the tanks.
And sure enough, that night it poured with rain and the tanks were filled!
In a nation where 60 percent of the population live without access to a safe water supply,[1] another 280 people that now have clean drinking water sure is reason to celebrate.
[1] “Papua New Guinea has world’s worse access to clean water, says WaterAid”, The Guardian 22 March 2016.
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