March 22 was World Water Day. About one out of ten people
in the world still lacks access to an improved water source. However, we are
rejoicing that the people of Mlenga, Tanzania, are no longer among them! Thanks
to a cooperative effort between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania,
St. Peter’s Blackberry Lutheran Church in cooperation with the Northwestern
Ohio Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s World Hunger Fund
there is now a fully-functioning well with solar pump and 15,000 liter (4,000
gallon) concrete storage tank, which provides plenty of clean water to this
rural community in the Dodoma Diocese of central Tanzania. The region around
Mlenga is very dry and lacks reliable sources of drinking water. Prior to the
completion of this project, people had to walk 3 miles each way to fetch water
using donkeys.
The project was managed by Naftal Mandi and Stuart Smith of Ground+Water Tanzania.
This project was dedicated last month. Bishop Marcus
Lohrmann of the Northwestern Ohio Synod of the ELCA and his wife Heidi were in
attendance. We lift up this project as an example of what can be done when
people from different places and backgrounds come together to find solutions to
water problems.
Photo Caption: Hudson
Kiwia and others filling plastic jerry cans with clean water at the newly
completed well in Mlenga, Tanzania. In the background there is a house for the
well attendant with a control room and business office. The edge of the solar
panel array (twelve 250-watt panels) can be seen on top of the building.
Joe and Deborah
are missionaries in Arusha, Tanzania, where they are the East Africa Regional
Representatives for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and work in
Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda. Their daughter, Christa, is in
Tanzania with them taking a gap year between high school and university.
