March 15, 2000
FLOOD VICTIMS in Mozambique cling to a roof while they await rescue. (RNS photo)
Texas Baptist Men offering purified
water to Mozambique flood victims
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Baptist volunteers from Texas, North Carolina and South Africa are purifying water for flood victims who have relocated to refugee camps in southeastern Mozambique.
___Cyclone Eline and subsequent storms have forced more than 1 million people in southern Mozambique from their homes over the past month. In addition to destroying villages and displacing residents, the floodwaters introduced cholera, water-borne bores and other diseases and parasites into the water supplies.
TRAPPED by rising waters, these residents of Mozambique sought refuge in a tree until they could be rescued by helicopter. (RNS photo)
___The Baptist disaster relief workers set up two water purification units along a creek near Jantigue, a few kilometers east of the refugee camps, and they pumped the purified water into a portable swimming pool for storage.
___Each of the two units, assembled in South Africa by the Texas Baptists from locally available components, is capable of purifying eight gallons of water per minute.
___Tanker trucks provided by the Save the Children organization have delivered the water to the refugees in at least four camps.
___"We had to search and search just to find water halfway decent enough to pump through the units," said team leader Dick Talley, logistics coordinator for Texas Baptist Men.
___Reporting to the Dallas office of Texas Baptist Men by satellite phone March 7, Talley explained that much of the water was so filled with silt that it clogged the water purification units' filters and hoses. "We finally found some water that was running through some reeds that was fairly clear."
___Even that water source temporarily became unavailable, however, when another round of torrential rain swept through the area, stirring up sediment in the creek bottom.
___It was the latest in a series of challenges the Baptist volunteers have faced since leaving the United States Feb. 28.
___The first came when rains delayed their entry into Mozambique from South Africa. However, that delay gave the volunteers time to replace a faulty water pump on one of the five vehicles they used to transport their equipment into Mozambique. It also allowed them the opportunity to test the water purifiers they built locally and to train volunteers with the Baptist Union in South Africa in their operation.
___When the mission is completed, the units will remain with the South African Baptists, with whom Southern Baptists have worked for about 50 years. The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina currently has a missions partnership with the Baptist Union of South Africa.
CYCLONE ELINE and subsequent storms have forced more than 1 million people in southern Mozambique from their homes. (RNS photo)
___After the rains slowed down, next came the problem of transportation. In a five-vehicle caravan, the team entered Maputo, South Africa, on the one main road that was not submerged.
___Once in Maputo, the Missionary Aviation Fellowship took Talley and a representative from the North Carolina team on an aerial survey of the region. On a three-hour flight, the team flew an arc more than 100 miles north of Maputo and saw no significant dry ground.
___Initially, the volunteers thought the only way they could get their heavy equipment to refugees near Chibuto was by barge.
___But then the local port authority helicopters, together with Puma heavy utility military helicopters from France and England, became available to fly the Baptist volunteers and their equipment into the region.
___Before they left Maputo, they experienced another setback. Harry Campbell, a volunteer from Eastside Baptist Church in Killeen, stepped into a hole and suffered a hairline fracture to his ankle. He was transported back to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he received medical treatment. Campbell returned to Texas March 8.
___Talley, Mel Goodwin from Clarksville City Baptist Church in White Oak and the North Carolina volunteers are due to return to the U.S. this week.
___A second volunteer team left Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport March 9 and was due to arrive in Johannesburg the next day. Texas team members included Walt Kriss from Midway Road Baptist Church in Dallas and Rex Campbell, coordinator of technical services for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___Jim Furgerson, executive director-treasurer of Texas Baptist Men, asked Texas Baptists to pray for the safety of all the volunteers.
___Individuals wishing to contribute to the relief efforts should designate their checks "disaster relief," made payable to "Baptist Executive Board," and mail them to the Treasurer's Office, Baptist General Convention of Texas, 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246-1798.
___
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