A Success Story: Haiti Nazarene Bible School Campus Water Project – The First of Many!
The Church of
the Nazarene has ministered in Haiti since 1950. In 1956, the mission
offices and houses moved to its current location in Petion-Ville, Haiti. The Nazarene campus is on about 26
acres.
On this property
we have a Bible School (with residential students, i.e. dorm
housing), a medical clinic, several houses for missionaries and housing and
facilities for Work & Witness teams who come to minister to the people of Haiti.
Recently, the
campus has used a water well on the campus that provides all the water used on
campus by way of an electric pump. The well is between 350 and 390 feet
deep. The Bible school campus also
has a couple of cisterns that have not been used for years by the mission.
With increasing diesel
prices coupled with dwindling resources, our generator use needed to be cut
back. The decreased use of the power generator had the result that we could no
longer sufficiently pump the amount of water that was needed to the student
dorms and mission houses on the campus with the electric water pump. Most days the
campus goes without power about 20 hours due to the financial necessity. The diesel
bills were simply too large to be sustainable.
The Bible School students living in the dormitories on campus have no
water once the pressure in the water pressure tank is depleted when there is no
power. This pressure tank is supplied by a submersible well pump. It was
decided that if one of the unused cisterns on the middle campus (elevated about
70 ft from the dormitories) was utilized, and some other changes made to the
piping, it might be possible to allow gravity fed water to flow down the hill back
to the dormitories.
First, the cistern needed to be
cleaned. After all the water and mud had
been taken out manually in buckets by local workers, the piping was installed so water could be pumped when there was power from a well
near the dorms to fill the “gravity feed” cistern.
This revision in
the way water is dispersed allowed water to be pumped to this cistern. Then, when no power is
available, water will be able to flow from the cistern back down to the
dormitories (by gravity) thus enabling the students to shower and flush toilets
when the power is off, thus solving the
problem of the cost of diesel power.
Additionally, the
current electric pump is too small to provide water to this cistern and
the rest of the system at the same time. All of the campus buildings except the
missionary homes are below the level of the main cistern on the very top of our
property. Therefore the missionary homes are under pressurized
system due to their location on the upper rear portion of the campus.
Only one of them is at a level sufficient to allow gravity flow. So we
are absolutely dependent on gravity feed for the operation of the bible school,
clinic, cafeteria, and other campus buildings.
Another change that was made
at the same time was the installation of a shallow well jet pump on top of the
cistern that is used for the gravity feed line.
The discharge of this pump was connected to an existing pipe that sends
water to the upper most cistern that provides water to the missionary homes. Doing this allowed a back up system to be put
into place in case it is ever needed.
These water
system changes will help to ensure the steady flow of the gravity feed system
and a better stewardship of money that has been given to continue the mission
of the Church of the Nazarene in Haiti.
The Haiti campus could further benefit from a more
efficient pump or even a donation of a sufficient alternative power system to
pump water. This would enhance our stewardship efforts by ensuring the
longevity of the work and the lower long-term cost to supply water. You can find examples of this type of
alternative water system at: www.worldwater.com
or other similar sites.
Volunteers and Donors:
This is one
example of what you can help do in Haiti. Other
water projects include similar type systems at local Nazarene churches throughout
and even to the farthest corners of Haiti.
In Haiti, we have over 500 Nazarene churches. Most of
these churches have no access to clean drinking water. One ministry that
we are undertaking in the Caribbean is the funding and building of reservoirs, cisterns,
and wells. These water collections and supplies would provide the clean
drinking water that many in the communities around our churches need.
Imagine the church becoming again the place where people came for both the
literal and spiritual water of life.
Make checks payable to:
General Treasurer's Office
6401 The Paseo
Kansas City, MO 64131
Make checks out to:
General Treasurer
Be sure to put ACM1365 in the MEMO area.
