A few years ago the ministry of health discovered that wells in some rural villages near where we work had high levels of arsenic.
Drinking water with high levels of arsenic over a number of years can lead to serious illnesses like skin cancer and kidney disease. There is a good background article on arsenic on the NE website.
Nuevas Esperanzas was asked to help find a solution because of our history in the area and our co-worker Andrew's specialization in hydogeology. He's posted two news articles giving updates about the work: an article about discovering that a large area is affected by this problem and an article about the health study done with the villagers who've been drinking the contaminated water.
Not having a background in chemistry, geology or dermatology, reading the articles reminded how fortunate we are to have the help of specialists like Andrew and Dr. Gomez, especially in situations where the stakes are high and those most affected are the poor. Our friend Scott from Food for the Hungry in Nicaragua makes a similar point, but more memorably that I could, in his blog post about Christian compassion and professionalism.
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