Kinetico Dealer friends, passionate about safe water #ItTakesAVillage

 

(This is a guest blog from Chris Knippa, the owner of Kinetico San Antonio, an independent Kineticodealer in Texas. The trip Chris is writing about was neither attended nor affiliated with Drink Local, Drink Tap. But he shares our mission of helping provide clean drinking water to the people of Uganda.)

 

Here in the United States, we take drinking water for granted. In fact, most of us (when we’re not in a severe drought) take water, in general, for granted. Our biggest issue may be whether our city’s water supply is soft or hard. How fortunate are we?

 

There are so many people around the world who do not share the simple luxury of clean drinking water. In fact, one in eight people globally only has access to filthy, deadly water. That’s about 13% of the world population. Lack of clean water kills more people each day than war, natural disasters, AIDS or hunger. Half of the world’s hospital beds are full of people sick from water-related illnesses. A child under the age of 5 dies every 21 seconds because of dirty water.

 

A friend of mine recently asked how there could possibly be so much suffering in the world. Instead of focusing on a negative, he tried to turn it into a positive. The conclusion was that we could alleviate much of the world’s suffering when we collectively band together for a purpose.

 

With that purpose in mind, I recently returned from my third trip to Uganda. Together, our group of volunteers from Uganda Tree of Life Ministries, St. John’s Lutheran Church in Boerne, Texas and North Shore United Methodist Church in Canyon Lake, Texas traveled there to drill four wells to hopefully provide clean drinking water to four different villages. The first well was particularly iffy. It had been drilled twice before, and it came up dry each time. However, on this trip, there was a massive change. Not only did we hit water, but we hit a lot of it. The other three wells also delivered water for the villagers.

 

And it didn’t stop there. More funding became available while we were there, and it allowed us to drill a fifth well. This particular well would serve the refugees of warlord Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army. These refugees are considered outcasts in the communities where they landed. They often rely on garbage to eat for the day. The water situation is so severe that two children died from typhoid shortly before we arrived.

 

I’m happy to report that more than 4,000 Ugandans, including those refugees, now have clean drinking water after our latest trip.

 

So it turns out my friend is correct. We can alleviate much of the world’s suffering when we become one for a purpose. Kinetico San Antonio plans on continuing to band together with volunteers, the community and great organizations like Drink Local, Drink Tap with the purpose of bringing clean water to our neighbors in Uganda, who are in such desperate need of help.