May 16th, 2025, 3:45pm MDT
Two recent contributions from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will affect the ability of people in two African communities to access clean water.
The church worked with the Catholic Rescue in Liberia to fund water, sanitation and sanitation projects. The work will benefit more than 7,000 people in a remote community in Painesville, Montserrado county, Liberia.
The church has helped bring clean and safe water to several parts of the world in recent months, including the Philippines, where the church provided plumbing to primary schools in Davao City. A remote village in southern New Guinea has a centrally located water well that provides stable and healthy water after a donation from the church in May. And this year, the church has supplied aquariums to Sabaii Island in Samoa this year to help hundreds of villagers and students have clean water.
The church’s donated water system in Liberia includes a large water tower, two boreholes to supply water to the tower, solar panels to power the pumps, an automatic chlorine system, and four extended kiosks for water distribution in important parts of the community.
The donation was celebrated on May 2, 2025, according to a news release on the Church’s Africa Newsroom website.
Community Chair Nyama Labra thanked the church for their congratulatory contributions.
“Your people have made our dreams come true,” she said. “We’re really struggling with water in this community.”
Labra said many children would be late for school due to long waits at the wells in the community before the wells were built.
Theophilus Davis, technical advisor to Catholic Relief Services, said the church-sponsored water project has been undertaken by the Catholic Rescue Corps, a “major, improved and modernized” hydrated Japanese project.
“We are not only dedicated to water facilities, but also to something that has been improved and modernised and expands various sections of our community,” he said.
Newly known as Area Seventy, Prince S. Nianpho, told those gathered for the celebration to take care of the well and protect it, adding that the money used to fund the project came from sacred donations from faithful members of the church.
“I’m glad you served you today,” he said.
The church is also working with the GA Mantse Foundation and GA Traditional Council to launch a similar water project in Accra, Ghana.
According to a news release from the African Newsroom, GA King, Tacky Teikotur II and other local government leaders joined local church leaders on April 29th for the launch of the official project.
The Liberia project will support people living in remote areas, but Accra deals with an influx of people who lack clean water.
Council member Alfred Nii Ashie Kotey said water shortages in the area are getting worse every year.
Elder Samuel Annan Simmons, 70, said the project highlights the Church’s commitment to sustainable development and service.
“This project reflects the values we cherish our faith: service, compassion and love for our fellow people,” he said. “As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are taught to love our neighbors and to look after those in need.”
