"In 1999, a Virginia commission found that 17,000 households in Southwest Virginia did not have safe drinking water because of nonfunctioning or contaminated wells."
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None of the volunteers benefit directly from this Self-Help project. The Bostics, who live on an adjacent mountain, have had running water for as long as they can remember. Most of the other volunteers also come from areas of the county already served with water. But Mr. Bostic’s mother and aunt live in Copperhead, in the house where he grew up, and he has many friends who will benefit from his work.
The Self-Help projects provide more than just running water for the community. For Mr. Bostic, the project offers a way to contribute to society and stay productive despite his injuries. The project has brought together neighbors and helped form new friendships in the area. Mr. Wallace speaks often of the pride and sense of accomplishment he has witnessed in communities that have completed Self-Help projects. PSA employees confess that they love getting assigned to supervise Self-Help projects because it allows them to “meet a lot of good folks… Everybody I met on Self-Help will wave to me if they see me in the town, and if I don’t see them wave, they’ll just start hollering at me,” says one grinning volunteer.
The impressive success of Copperhead did not come easily. Besides an excellent “sparkplug” and work force, Mr. Wallace and the state have needed the cooperation of local governments to provide supervisors and support. Self-Help has strict guidelines governing which communities qualify, requiring at least 51 percent low or moderate-income households, widespread pledges of community participation, and a projection of at least 40 percent in savings over traditional installation. In some areas, despite volunteer labor, geographic conditions make it too expensive to lay pipe. In Copperhead, heavy rains and mechanical difficulties have provided endless hurdles for the team. But Mr. Wallace explained that intelligence, common sense, and cooperation on the part of the state can overcome most problems. The Copperhead project, recently completed, has produced 19,000 feet of piping extending over the entire mountain, giving 33 households running water for the first time. Today, when most of the attention on safe water falls on regions of the developing world, Self-Help Virginia reminds that a surprising number of Americans face a similar problem, but that creative and effective solutions do exist.
NOTES/ADDITIONAL READING
1 Corkall, Darrell, W.C. Schutzman and Clint R. Hilliard. “Rural Water Safety From the Source to the On-Farm Tap.” Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. 67:1619-1642. 2004.
2 Huttlinger, Kathleen and Jennifer Schaller-Ayes and Tony Lawson. “Health Care In Appalachia: A Population-Based Approach.” Public Health Nursing. Vol. 21, 2004.
Laura Schewel is a junior in Morse College. She spent her summer working for a self-help program in Virginia.