Thank You To Everyone Who Drank Life Water at Glastonbury 2024

“My name is Amel Garang. I am 40 years old, and I am a mother of six children—four boys and two girls. Two boys and one girl are now attending school, while the rest of my children stay at home with me, helping with household activities like collecting water, cooking, and cultivation during the planting season. These are things I can no longer do myself, as you see, because I am an older woman. For a living, I cultivate different types of crops, and I also raise a few domestic animals like cows, goats, and sheep. Keeping livestock is part of our traditional heritage, passed down from our grandparents. They provide us with milk, butter, yogurt, and, finally, meat when we slaughter them. I feed my children with the dura I cultivate in the garden and milk from the cows and goats. When our well broke, we had no other option but to collect water from the pond since there was no other well nearby. We continued drinking pond water because there was no alternative source of clean water for drinking and cooking. The water we collected was contaminated, but we had no choice. This village is inaccessible—there are no roads for organizations or the government to reach us and see the reality of our situation. Because of this, many of our people suffer from diseases caused by stagnant water, which we are forced to drink every year when our well is broken. When both our well and pond dry up, people go without drinking water or cooking, and our animals also suffer from thirst. As you see on our faces now, we are all happy because our well has been repaired! We can now get clean water for drinking and cooking. We were always digging holes around the swamps to find water, but today, we no longer have to drink that stagnant water, which has caused so many diseases in our lives. Now, we are enjoying our clean water, right here near us, and we no longer have to search for water in the pond. This is a great happiness for our people. This keeps the original message intact while improving clarity and flow. Let me know if you’d like any further refinements!”

Amel Garang, Community Member.

This project was undertaken as part of our campaign of projects that actively reduce carbon emissions. This project helped the community save their much needed wood which was previously being burnt daily to boil water. This project has also eliminated the many thousands of hours previously spent on walking to collect water.