Posted 8:51 pm Sunday, June 12, 2011
Pure Water Is Mission Of Nonprofit
Could you imagine living without clean, pure water?
You couldn't take a refreshing warm shower in the morning. You couldn't wash your food or clothing. You wouldn't have a substance that your body needs every day.
To put it bluntly, without clean water, you die.
Dr. Ted Mettetal, a physician in Athens, has seen people suffer and die because of lack of clean water. As a medical missionary he visits remote areas in Africa and South America where water-borne illnesses are a way of life.
"Often, when we were on these trips, we would talk about the difficulties the natives had as a result of impure water," recalls Dr. Mettetal in a web posting. "As a physician, I saw frequent evidence of disease in the children due to drinking impure water. We saw adults and children with severe dehydration as a result of their intestinal diseases contracted from drinking impure water-diseases that would sometimes kill the children and that would often weaken the adults to the point of non-productivity.
"We watched as women and children would spend their entire day walking back and forth to a distant water hole to obtain water - often dirty, contaminated water - for their family to use on a daily basis."
Dr. Mettetal became determined to do something about their plight.
Last year, he and colleagues founded Hope Springs Water, a nonprofit organization that sells drinking water bottled from a spring near Palestine. All the proceeds from the sale of Hope Springs Water are used to fund the drilling of water wells.
The organization has partnered with nonprofit organizations in Uganda and Nicaragua to drill wells, according to an update posted on its website, hopespringswater.org.
Previously Hope Springs Water was only available at two stores in Athens, but now the water is being sold at most Brookshire's grocery stores in Texas and Louisiana.
Jack Clemmons, a Hope Springs board member, says this new development means that even more people can help with its mission.
"There is no easier way to become part of such a positive movement. All one has to do to become a Hope Springs Water team member and to help save lives is to continue to drink water, just drink Hope Springs Water in the future."
To learn more about Hope Springs Water and how to become a promotion partner, check out its website.
