TURKEY – Operation Blessing is hard at work in Turkey attempting to help residents with emergency needs while empowering them to move towards recovery. One of the most pressing needs at the moment is for clean water to drink, as that is among the very first things affected by a natural disaster like this. Thankfully, we have people on the ground actively working to provide clean water to those in need.
OB Engineer Working to Provide Clean Water
Jose Esquer is Operation Blessing’s onsite water engineer in Turkey, where the nearly 300-mile disaster has wreaked havoc on local infrastructure. Without water, earthquake survivors will die. There are solutions, but unfortunately, much more needs to be done.
Jose said, “Right now, the solution is bottled water, but there’s not enough bottled water. So we are looking for solutions based on the local [sources], just to purify water.”
With this in mind, Operation Blessing has implemented a reverse osmosis system to take undrinkable water and make it safe. This is critical, as the existing water supply in Hatay has alarmingly-high levels of contamination.
Major Effort is Required to Restore Clean Water Access
Contaminated water like this can have long-term consequences that will harm residents in the area if drastic measures aren’t taken to change the situation. Esquer says major help is needed after a disaster of this scale.
He said, “This is huge, and it will need several years to restore. And I ask for all the people to continue to support this major-scale disaster.”
No one organization is going to be able to handle the massive level of need across the vast disaster zone, but we can do our part with the help of friends like you. We can make a difference and display God’s love to many suffering people.
Stay tuned for more information about Operation Blessing’s Turkey response. To donate to disaster relief efforts, visit: https://www.ob.org/disasterrelief/
