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Operation Blessing Delivers Much-Needed Clean Water to Turkey's Disaster Area

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HATAY, Turkey – A major need following a disaster such as the Turkey earthquakes is safe drinking water. CBN's Operation Blessing has come up with a solution.

When people visit the region hardest hit by these earthquakes, they're struck by the size and scope of the disaster. 

Jose Esquer, Operation Blessing's on-site water engineer, said of the scene in Turkey and Syria,   “This area of the country is almost lost. It’s injured. In some other disasters it’s a fraction (of an area) and even in that fraction it’s not like general (or widespread). This earthquake is like off the charts.” 

Esquer added, “Right now there is bottled water but there is not enough bottled water. So, we are looking for solutions based on the local for purified water in the place.”

One of the first impacts of a natural disaster in earthquake-ravage areas is on the quality of the water. That's why Operation Blessing has a reverse osmosis system to take undrinkable water and make it safe. 

Esquer showed CBN News the process of making the water safe. First, he took some of the well water from a storage tank. 

“You see the difference of the water," he said. "It has a lot of (metals) and also a lot of minerals, Calcium. Definitely not drinkable.” 

After measuring the contaminants, Esquer got a reading of more than 1,000, indicating high contamination. 

“It may have something like excessive minerals, excessive some metals even, and that is something that we are not going to allow let us happen on our watch.  So let’s go to the kitchen," Esquer suggested..

In the kitchen, he showed us how they take the contaminated water and made it safe for cooking and drinking. Afterward, he took his instrument to measure again, and it dropped from over 1,000 to about 50.    

Esquer compared the before and after water sources. “This is the water from the well.  Right now if you open the faucet you will have this (undrinkable water).  And this is the one that comes from the reverse osmosis system.  And this is totally drinkable.  I wouldn’t drink this (bad water) and be safe after.  This (clean water) is good. The water that we have is perfect.  It’s safe.” 

Contaminated water such as the water found in turkey can have long-term consequences.

“Toxical metals, even heavy metals, has damage in the organs for long years and when you have some symptoms, it’s too late," Esquer explained.

He said major help is needed after a disaster of this scale. “This is huge and it will need several years to restore.  I ask for all the people to support this in a major scale.” 

And, he said, prayer is vital. 

“That is something for sure needed.  So what we do is to show the love of God through our actions.  And that’s the way we are doing right now.” 

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