Page 18 - September 2019

JIM PICKARD AND ROBERT LASHER

CO-CHAIRS OF THE 3RD ANNUAL BEAUFORT WATER WALK

WE WALK SO OTHERS WON’T HAVE TO

story by LINDSEY LENOIR photos by PAUL NURNBERG
L Imagine, for a moment, that you made landfall on the coast of Honduras. It suffering and to see if their water purification
On October 29, 1998, Hurricane Mitch
conditions and devastation the country was
et me paint a picture for you.
was the strongest hurricane of the season
system would indeed work. When they got
are a Honduran woman. In your
village, the closest water source
five when it pummeled the small islands
there was a river running through that,
is a river the color of mud, about and had just weakened from a category there, they were stunned. In one village,
a mile and a half away. It is not only your and villages along the coast of Honduras. according to the Greene’s was, “The color
sole source of water, it is also a watering The damage caused by the storm was of chocolate milk...deep brown with toxins,
hole for everyone else in your village, said to have set the country back 50 years bacteria, and hopelessness.” It was referred
people and animals alike. It’s unsanitary in economic development. Due to the to by the residents as, “The River of Death.”
and disease-filled, but it’s all you have to terrible flooding, much of the country’s Soon, the Greene’s had a water
cook with, bathe with, and drink. Every Caribbean coastline was devastated. All purification system in place that was fully
day of your life, you make the trek back total, Honduras suffered a staggering $3 operational, but the villagers were afraid
and forth, carrying buckets, pots, whatever billion in damages. It was in the aftermath to drink the purified water. It wasn’t until
you can fill to provide for your family for of this storm that the late Molly Green Molly Greene drank from the water hose
the day. Every day you walk, rain or shine, and her husband George, who operated
in sickness or health, you walk. Your prize an environmental engineering company,
for all of this hard work? Dirty, filthy, water began receiving requests for multiple water “Water is the world’s most
that is unfiltered, unpurified, and unsafe for treatment systems to help the people of basic resource. It has the
you and your family. It will most likely make Honduras. Unfortunately, there were no such
you and your children sick, but you have systems to be found that would work on this power to give life
no choice, it’s all you have, and your life scale. So, George and a team of engineers and to take it.”
revolves around it. This is a harsh existence, set to work and developed a system of their
but a daily hardship that an estimated 1.8 own. The Greene’s decided to venture to Source: Water Mission International
billion women and children face globally. Honduras to get a first-hand account of the
18 September 2019 | BeaufortLifestyle.com