Bishop Jane's Farewell Gift to Provide 19 Community Water Treatment Projects

Updated May 11, 2021

In honour of Bishop Jane Alexander and her ministry, the Edmonton diocese has gifted $19,350 USD to Bishop Sixbert Macumi and the Diocese of Buyé. The funds collected for Bishop Jane’s farewell gift will be used by Buyé diocese to help build water spring improvement projects in 19 more communities.

Bishop Jane is amazed and grateful: “I am overwhelmed at the generous response to the water projects in Buyé as a farewell gift,” she says. “Your generosity will ensure clean water in 19 parish communities and this will be life-changing. I have seen firsthand what a difference it makes to the community to have a clean, fresh water source and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Bless you.”

“Thank you so much for such good news,” said Bishop Sixbert Macumi. “I am so thankful to everyone who contributed to the donations.”

“In Burundi we have much water, but it is not well managed,” said Bishop Sixbert on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Bishop Jane’s consecration in 2018. At that time the offertory collection helped fund a community well in the village of Kiziba.

Burundi’s water infrastructure system was severely damaged by civil war from 1993 to 2006, and clean water uncontaminated by bacteria and parasites is especially hard to get in rural areas. More than half of residents rely on lakes, rivers and swamps for their water.

While Burundi is blessed with abundant, clean groundwater, it is difficult for people to access it without contamination. It is common for natural spring water, the primary source of drinking water for people in Buyé, to be polluted by erosion and livestock.

Each improved spring supplies an entire village and reduces the incidence of waterborne diseases, which are a major cause of illness and death, particularly in children.