Dig A Well

Vincentians staff Holy Name of Jesus parish in Bomana, a semi-rural area in Papua New Guinea. The parish serves as meeting grounds for the families who live near it. In fact, various groups of parishioners (teens, prayer groups, young mothers, etc.) have been assigned a plot of land each to garden there.

The groups share the labor and the bounty of these gardens among themselves and sell some of the produce too. It is an enterprising project that does an enormous amount of good. 

While it rains plenty in PNG, growing crops often need water between storms. Every roof on the property has a “water capture system” with huge tanks to store the water. If a garden is getting dry, the gardeners fill buckets from the tank and carry the water to the garden. The system works, but is extremely laborious and outdated.

What if there was a well on the property with pvc pipes running to each garden? What would that make possible? Not only would gardens be watered more efficiently but many families would bring buckets with them to church on Sunday to carry water home, saving them from having to pay for water delivery.

It seems to me a LOT of good would follow from this very moderate investment. What do you say? Can you help us provide running water to this town so that they can flourish and have reliable running water?