by Living Waters for the World

lww creek

Creek in wet season

Imagine getting up early in the morning, standing in front of the kitchen sink, you turn on the faucet and nothing happens. Has the pump failed again? You slip on your jacket, grab a container and start walking down the hill. It hasn't rained lately you're thinking to yourself and you stop in your tracks – the stream-bed is dry. This is not an excerpt from some prairie novel written about life at the turn of the century; it's reality for many families across Appalachia.

lww crew

Gene, Bill, Bob (LWW volunteers), Tonya, Matt, Angel, Andrew

For one family along the KY/TN border, their water source was a stream-bed down the hill from their house. The county will probably never run a municipal water line down their hollow – there aren't enough families living there for it to be profitable. And even if the county did run a water line, it's hard to pay a water bill when your income is virtually non-existent. It's hard to believe that this story plays out in communities across the US but it does. Luckily, there are people who care and are willing to do something about it.

lww water system

LWW Standard UV Disinfection Clean Water System

In this instance, the family's water source had dried up after a long dry spell and it was the attentiveness of a grade school classmate that something wasn't right that brought the family to the attention of Living Waters for the World. Now, thanks to a grant from the Hope through Healing Hands Foundation and Brad Paisley's H2O World Water Tour, and additional contribution and volunteer labor from Rivermont Presbyterian Church in Chatanooga, the family now has a sustainable supply of water that is safe to consume.