One Thing Leads to Another: Friendly Water for the World Goes to Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan has taken a terrible toll on families, communities, and nations. Hardly a day goes by without one hearing of more deaths among soldiers and civilians, men and women, adults and children. And for every death, there are likely dozens of wounded. The expectation of death, injury, and destruction has become part of the consciousness of every Afghan, and every soldier or visitor who has visited the country in the past several decades.

Somehow there are people who find a way to rise above it. The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/ ) began in 2008 as a group of young people ages 14-22 in Bamiyan in northern Afghanistan with a firm commitment to peace. Some of them have lost brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, cousins and friends to the violence that surrounds them, but are absolutely committed to finding nonviolent alternatives in their daily lives and in global conflicts. If the wars in Afghanistan have produced any true heroes, here they are.

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers inspired a group of people halfway around the world – in Olympia, Washington – to found the Global Days of Listening in 2010. (http://globaldaysoflistening.org/ )  Based out of the home of Friendly Water for the World Board member Dennis Mills, every 21st of the month, people committed to peace and nonviolence all over the world – from Rwanda to Sweden, Israel to Australia, Palestine to Iraq – engage in conversation with each other for 24 hours, rededicating themselves globally to the end of war, violence, and oppression.

Out of these conversations, three individuals from Western Washington – Doug and Jody Mackey of Olympia, and Larry Kerschner of Centralia – made a commitment to go to Afghanistan to meet and work with their new friends. It was at that point that they heard that clean water was a key issue for them, and indeed for Afghans everywhere.

-- More Deaths from Waterborne Illness than from the War --

Over the past decade, more Afghans have died from waterborne illnesses than from the war. One in five Afghan children doesn’t live to age five, with the majority of them dying from water-related diseases. According to the United Nations, just over a quarter of people living in Afghanistan have access to clean water, and that is probably an overestimate. Only 11% of people living in the countryside have access to safe drinking water; in Bamiyan it is even less than that. The result is that life expectancy in Afghanistan is among the lowest in the world.

First Doug (in 2010) and Larry (in 2011) undertook the Friendly Water for the World summer training in fabricating biosand water filters and in teaching community sanitation and hygiene. Larry made it clear that he didn’t want to be a “peace tourist” (as he felt he had been in an earlier trip to Iraq); but wanted to be able to bring something of value to the community. A few phone calls to the Center of Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST) and they were in touch with the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees, known to many in Afghanistan as DACAAR.  DACAAR, headquartered in Kabul, became an indispensable partner with Friendly Water for the World's Afghanistan project.  With the help of many, many others, the Afghanistan Peace and Clean Water Delegation headed to Afghanistan for the month of September 2011.

DACAAR was willing to provide a professional trainer, a native Afghan, well suited to provide this training in Paytob- Loghman the village where biosand water filters would be made by a group of 15 villagers.  Through prior arrangements two steel molds and the tool kits needed to produce molds were assembled in Kabul and shipped to the village ahead of time. Shir Habib, the trainer, was flown in to Bamiyan in plenty of time to lead the scheduled training.  The three “Friendlies” were delayed in their travel as a policy change within the United Nations office providing our complimentary humanitarian air service forced them to purchase tickets that would deliver the to the training for the third and final day. They learned that we would not have been able to fly anywhere within Afghanistan without the clear partnership of an established NGO like DACAAR. Travel to Bamiyan by land vehicle from Kabul is possible – but often deadly.

The team arrived finally to see the two filters made during training and to witness the first cleansing use that easily removed suspended solids.  They met two more times with village leaders to talk about how to best use the molds and tools, and together came up with a plan that they would be managed as community property.  An agreement was crafted assigning ownership of molds and tools to the people of Bamiyan in the care of village leader Ali Jumah. The community was encouraged to envision the equipment being used by a group to create a small business, as well as hope being shared that it would be used frequently and to the betterment of those less fortunate in the village.  

-- Celebrating the International Day of Peace --

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers hosted our visit both in Kabul and in Bamiyan.  They had arranged for meetings with over a dozen well established NGO staff or governmental officials related to their work for peace.  All participated in a celebration of the International Day of Peace, September 21, by talking with people around the globe about the wish of ordinary Afghans, Iraqis and others to live without war.  Professor Noam Chomsky joined this call for 30 minutes and answered questions by the Peace Volunteers as only Prof. Chomsky can: thoroughly and eloquently.  (You can hear this part of the conversation on the Global Days of Listening website.)

The work in Afghanistan will continue.  With the help of Faiz, a 20-year-old leader of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, the Western Washington group will remain in contact with Ali Jumah and the others who were trained. Doug is already planning to return to Afghanistan next year to continue the work of Friendly Water for the World with a follow-up visit to Paytob Loghman and to build on the relationships toward wider use of biosand water filters.

And the family of Friendly Water for the World grows ever-wider.
( for information, contact: david@friendlywaterfortheworld.com )