HCJB's water engineers and health professionals are dedicated to improving the health of rural communities though clean water and preventive health care. The team is committed to Biblical values and community development principles. In each project, the benefiting communities bear significant responsibility for the resources to obtain clean water. In Chimborazo Province for example, where community development has had a long-term presence, the communities provide over 60% of the resources necessary to build their water systems and provide significant leadership.
HCJB staff design the community water systems and national field technicians with whom HCJB has a long-standing relationship supervise construction. The field technicians are primarily employed and paid by the benefiting communities they serve. Design work includes, topographic survey, hydraulic design, spring protection/development structures and design of water storage structures. Community water systems may vary in size from 25 to 500 homes. The communities provide all of the unskilled and semi-skilled labor. This arrangement allows HCJB to promote community unity, employ community development principles and to emphasize a Biblical perspective of development at all stages of the project.
Water projects have been undertaken in collaboration with a number of organizations. These include Water for People, Lifewater, Instituto Ecuatoriano de Obras Sanitarias (IEOS) which translates as the Ecuadorian Institute of Health Construction, the Swedish International Development Agency, the Canadian International Development Agency, Jersey Aid, and MAP International. In addition to working with the organizations mentioned, concerned individuals, churches and a variety of interested organizations also provide funding.
HCJB have water project programs in three areas of Ecuador; the highlands, the Pacific lowlands and the Ecuadorian Amazon. The first two areas have been benefiting from water projects for a number of years and to date almost 70 schemes have been completed. In the highlands efforts have focused primarily on communities in the Chimborazo province with a limited number of projects in other regions. Most projects are gravity flow water systems. Where this is not possible in recent years simple pumped water systems have been introduced where the communities prove themselves capable of operating and maintaining these systems. In the Pacific coastal lowlands over 100 wells have been constructed and we are beginning to construct a number of gravity or basic pumped water systems.
The Ecuadorian Amazon jungle is a relatively new venture which began in 2003.To date, they have helped hand-dig a well, protect a number of springs and work in collaboration with the local municipality to repair and improve the water system in Makuma, a jungle community of 100 families. The jungle communities present a new range of problems that need solving as all the materials and personnel need to fit into small 5-seater airplanes operated by MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). The program is starting with small projects to form ‘model communities’ and hold workshops on sanitation, hygiene and water treatment while local technicians are trained and experimentation takes place into which designs work best in this difficult terrain.
Access to safe, clean water is critical for proper health care, hygiene, sanitation, food production, education, and economic activity. It is the foundation on which everything else in a community is built. So how does the provision of a readily available safe water source have a positive impact on a community?
Employment opportunities. When the health of a family is improved and time freed up through access to clean water members of the family, particularly women are able to engage in various income generating opportunities. Time can be devoted to growing an agricultural surplus to producing other items which may be sold. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates 5.6 billion working days would be gained annually if there was universal access to safe water and sanitation.
Healthcare costs reduced. Many less developed countries do not have a welfare state. This means that access to professional healthcare and medicines is both in short supply and expensive. It is also time consuming for parents (often the women) to take sick children to the nearest clinic, time that normally would be spent collecting water or generating income. Many family health problems are as a result of contaminated water and inadequate sanitation. Safe water leads to improved family health and less time and money spent on healthcare. Income is then directed in more positive ways towards improving family welfare.
Costs of buying water reduced. In many parts of the world where clean drinking water is scarce there exist water vendors. Preying on the vulnerability of the poor they often sell clean (and not so clean) water at exorbitant rates. Provision of water and sanitation projects that cater for the entire community mean that water resources may be managed in a more equitable fashion and any charges that are necessary are much lower.
Poor water quality and unreliable water supplies have a detrimental affect on children’s health and education. In areas of water scarcity children can spend long periods of time fetching water from distant and often polluted water sources. The distances involved mean children often carry heavy loads which can cause long term detrimental affects in the development of the spine. The time taken to collect water robs children of much of their education.
When the water is contaminated this can lead to serious illness and even death. Epidemics of cholera, typhoid and hepatitis mean that schools have to be closed or individuals take large amounts of time off school.
In many areas of the world girls have significant domestic responsibilities which compete with their need for an education. They are often the ones required to find and collect water for the rest of the family. Often as these girls reach adolescence they simply give up attending school.
Lack of education is one of the biggest barriers to the reduction of global poverty. Improved access to safe water has a dramatic effect on community health and children’s education and is therefore a powerful tool in tackling poverty.
Over half of the 1.2 billion people who do not have access to clean water are women and girls. They are usually the ones responsible for collecting water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, hygiene, and sanitation. This time consuming and physically demanding activity reduces opportunities for women to participate in activities such as education, politics, economic endeavors, and recreation.
The very activity of carrying water, often in containers weighing around 20kg is exhausting and may lead to permanent damage of the body. Problems typically include back ache, damage to joints and in more extreme cases, physical deformity of the spine.
When there is illness in the family it usually falls to the women to nurse the sick and this leads to competing priorities as water still needs to be collected and any income generating employment needs to be undertaken.
Women need to have a voice in the community if sustainable community development is to happen, but this is difficult. The burden of collecting water and the fact that few schools have adequate sanitation and access to clean water means that school attendance by girls is poor. This has resulted in few women receiving sufficient education to become decision-makers or hold other positions of influence.
'Women with even a few years of basic education have smaller, healthier families; are more likely to be able to work their way out of poverty; and are more likely to send their own children - girls and boys - to school… Each additional year of female education is thought to reduce child mortality by 5-10%.' (DFID 2000)
When clean water and improved sanitation are provided this can revolutionize the lives of women and indeed the entire family unit. Health is improved, time is freed up for other activities like income generating work, agriculture, education, looking after children and simply relaxing.
In many less developed countries life expectancy is less than in the western world. Those that survive the ravages of poverty, drought, disease and war into old age still have to find clean drinking water. For those with younger family members this is not always a problem. However for those who are alone or vulnerable, obtaining water is a long, difficult and even dangerous daily activity. Long distances still have to be traveled to and from water sources with heavy containers. When water is scarce at the point of supply it is often the elderly who suffer. They may find themselves pushed to the back of the queue and have to resort to begging the younger and stronger people to help them. The elderly are also more likely to suffer more serious symptoms of water borne illnesses.
Introducing a local clean water supply is a significant help to the elderly. Competition for the resource is reduced as is the distance that it must be carried. Clean water means the elderly are provided with a greater degree of protection from water related illness.
In designing, implementing and then assessing the projects we are involved with we employ a number of important guiding values, principles and methodologies.
First, as Christians we have a Biblical basis to all that we do. We believe God has called us to this work. The process of community development is also a process of discipleship and we take this responsibility seriously. Discipleship builds relationship and so we are able to participate with local churches, encouraging them and assisting in evangelism. God wants to bless all peoples through his plan of redemption which is both spiritual and material in nature.
Secondly, we are guided by a set of community development principles. A benefiting community must demonstrate commitment to a project and leadership. It is their project and they undertake the majority of the work. The project must be designed at an appropriate technical and economic level such that the project can be operated and maintained by the community and thus is sustainable. The minimum amount of catalytic resources from outside shall be used in the project with care taken not to displace what the community can provide themselves. Community development is just that: an improvement in the provision of basic resources that brings benefit to the entire community equally. Christ centred community development is based upon Biblical principles such as ‘loving your neighbour’ and being ‘part of a body’.
Thirdly, we follow a project methodology that has been developed through years of experience in our area of expertise. This is applied at every stage of the project: design, construction and review. It lays out clearly the responsibilities of key stakeholders and the main steps in the project.
Fourthly, we have established a set of design principles again born out of significant experience of community development work in Ecuador. These are not written in stone and serve as a guide since every project presents its own unique set of challenges. The principles layout broad guidelines for the design and construction of water systems, sanitation improvement and hygiene measures.
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What we do 
