♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Dr. Patricia Bailey, an expert on the global water crisis -- that's next on "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, we are committed to diversity and understand our responsibility in supporting and empowering diverse communities.

Diversity and inclusion is integral to the way we work.

Supporting the financial health of our diverse customers and employees is one of the many ways we remain invested in inclusion for all today, tomorrow, and in the future.

American Petroleum Institute -- through the core elements of API's Energy Excellence Program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry in the U.S. and around the world.

You can learn more at api.org/apiEnergyExcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to empowering people to choose how they live as they age.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> Dr. Patricia Bailey, welcome to "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> I am so excited about being here.

>> We both are natives of North Carolina.

>> First of all, nothing can be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning, right?

>> That's a great song.

>> So, I was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, tobacco capital of the world, and raised with my aunts and my grandmother that were historians and big on education.

But my grandmother, she loved teaching us about ethnicities and different people groups and tribes.

And my aunt, being a librarian, she would bring home the National Geographic volumes from the library.

So, I'd sit and go through those books and look at the faces of people from around the world.

And I would travel around the world in my mind through those National Geographic books.

And I believe somehow it kind of unlocked a type of destiny on the inside of me and created a hunger for a world outside of little, old Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

I'd say that's where it began.

>> So, tell me how it is you got to Africa.

I know it was through some of your global work.

>> It first started out with recognizing that there was a type of awareness inside of me to give back.

And first, you know, because we went through that whole journey of roots and all, "Where are you from?

Who are your people?"

And as I begin to journey, I saw some of the greatest crises.

And for many years, I first was focusing on things like housing, making sure there's food, education -- education has always been very big -- and global health for women because of the infant-mortality rates and things like that.

But as I got older, I began to see two of the greatest crises that claim more lives was the crisis of the lack of clean water and the lack of sanitation.

So, then, I began to put more of a focus towards those things, even though we do -- like, we just finished doing 43 houses in the squatter camps of South Africa for the homeless.

So, I'll always have that passion for that.

But going after where the greater need is, and most people don't realize where Africa stands today concerning water, the water crisis.

One out of every three people in the continent have a water-scarcity challenge.

That's like 400 million people.

And you don't think about that because it's such a vast land.

I've always said this, that it's so very interesting that the most mineral-resource continent, that if it wasn't for the minerals that it provides -- like, for example, Congo, with the cobalt and the coltan -- we wouldn't have Apple.

We wouldn't have laptops.

We wouldn't have computers.

We wouldn't have -- I mean, just think about NASA or the Pentagon, all these different companies and organizations and entities that require computers.

Well, there wouldn't be anything without the cobalt or the coltan.

So, these most mineral-resource countries -- the ones that are the most mineral resource have the greatest water problems -- is providing the type of money and resources to provide for the world.

But yet here they are lacking in just the basic essentials of life.

>> What are the contributing factors to the lack of clean water in a place called Africa?

>> Well, one of the things -- like, if you think about it, sometimes, Ben.

How often do you really hear of a politician running his campaign on clean water?

So, people just don't really think about it.

They don't make it a priority.

But everything stems around water.

Ninety percent of the diseases are waterborne diseases.

We saw that with doing mobile clinics for years.

We were spending so much money on antibiotics and things.

And most of the problems was the lack of water.

So, let's kind of go back to what I was saying early.

Isn't it very interesting in some of the most mineral-resource countries, when you look at the top ten countries of the continent, they have the worst water problems.

Just happen to be -- >> But why?

Water's under the ground.

>> Come on.

And I say the same way you can drill for oil or drill for diamonds or whatever, why can't you drill for water?

Because there isn't an interest.

It doesn't benefit.

It benefits to take Congo and have them pitched against each other, divide and conquer, and not provide the basic, because now watch this.

You know, water provides life expectancy.

Water provides healthcare.

Water provides economic stability in a country.

So, as long as the country is crippled and doesn't have the basic needs, then it's a position where you can continue to pillage the country and just take out of it and rob the country.

I mean, just one of the places we're working right now -- Ben, it would break your heart.

I hope they get to see the pictures, where the gold belt of Liberia and where over 100 years of mining gold.

I have to hold the tears back, literally, because we're working there right now -- no schools, no roads, no electricity, no water.

>> What about the reinvestment so that the infrastructure can provide basic water for the people of the nation?

>> Unfortunately, not only -- >> Seems like reverse development.

>> Exactly.

>> Extraction... >> Exactly.

>> ...of the minerals... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...of the natural resources.

>> But not pouring back.

>> But not reinvesting in the infrastructure because there's water in Africa.

>> Under the ground -- absolutely, plenty of it.

>> I've done some work in the Congo.

>> Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

>> And I know that a lot of philanthropic organizations now drill... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...and they get water, you know?

And it is basic.

>> We just had it happen today.

We just -- I mean, we just hit water in the Sahara Desert in Niger, gushing.

Most of the water in the world is underground.

And so, it has to be the interest.

Let's go back a little tiny bit.

When you say, "You got all of this -- it's like reverse development."

Why wouldn't it be that in leadership you made a requirement, you would make a requirement for the companies that are doing the mining, make a requirement that a portion is paid back into infrastructure?

So, you're mining, you're taking out of the land, but not giving anything back to the people -- just the basic things, like clean water.

>> What do you see?

What is your forecast?

I know the United Nations issued a report some time ago saying that the next world war... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...would not be over oil.

It'll be over water.

>> Over water.

>> Why?

>> Because the access to it -- the water is there; you said it earlier -- the lack of drilling.

And then even most of the drilling companies are not into the hands of the indigenous people there.

So, I remember being in northern Ghana, a place called Yagaba, just south of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

And for years they've been sitting on water with life expectancy short, all kinds of diseases, infant mortality, women that are full of infections, nursing babies that have infections.

And we drilled 100 feet and hit water, like, 100 gallons a minute.

All along they were sitting on that.

But we had to take a rig all the way from Accra, 18 hours, all the way up to the top of northern Ghana, to be able to drill, to get clean water.

I believe -- and this is my bottom-line view about it -- you can't wait on politicians and governments to do the job.

It has to be heartfelt people like yourself and myself that go beyond looking at the problem and shaking our head and kind of like, you know, seeing the same thing repeat itself and says, "Something has to be done," because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

So, I had to rise above seeing it over and over and over again and say, "It's just little, old me, and I can't change the whole world, but I can do something."

So, we started a campaign of 100 boreholes by the end of the year, and it's starting to go viral.

People are getting excited about it and realizing how easy we can do it, that it can really be done.

Now, will we reach the whole continent, because you're talking about 400 million people that have a water-scarcity challenge?

Probably not in my lifetime, but I can walk away with a fulfillment, like the little story of the little boy that took the starfish, remember?

And he threw it in the water, and he threw another one.

His dad said, "What do you think you're doing?

You can't save everybody."

And the little boy picked up a fish and threw it in and said, "But I saved that one."

So, we have to rise to -- like Martin Luther King challenged us.

We have to rise to a type of consciousness that what affects you affects me.

Look how much water we throw away.

Think about the holidays when we drink water, and the family's around, and you don't know whose plastic bottle that is and who drank out of that.

You know, and you end up with all of these empty, half-empty bottles of water, and you throw them away.

When we brush our teeth, the amount of water that we run, like some people let the water on when they're brushing their teeth, Ben?

Well, that amount of water is more water in that amount of time than most people of those 1.3 million of those 400 million get in a day.

>> Alright.

You eloquently described the problem.

I want to spend some time talking about what are some of the solutions... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...to the water crisis in Africa and water crises throughout the world.

From your experience, and you've been doing this now, what, 30, 40 years?

>> Over 4 decades and 147 countries.

>> Alright, so, tell us.

Let's share with the audience.

What have you learned are some of the solutions to the global water crisis, but particularly now in Africa?

>> So, one of the things I learned, Ben, is that first I thought people didn't care.

How many years I thought that.

Like, "We're satisfied having what we have."

But I found out that it's that people didn't know.

So, number one, create an awareness, educate people, let people know.

Like, you're allowing me to be here to even address it.

And so, it's like the big elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.

>> So, public awareness, public education.

>> Absolutely, absolutely.

Then, once we make awareness, then, of course, what we do is make easy access.

What is easy access?

You can drill a borehole for about three grand.

And so one person may not be able to write a check for that.

But if people come together, and each one kind of chip in, and they come together and say, "You know what?

I'll take this village."

Or, you know, "My business will take one."

And we've actually had people saying, "You know what?

I want one for my company."

And we've been doing plaques on it, if you want your family, like leaving a legacy for your family and just everybody chipping in and doing a little something.

And we're addressing the areas that have the greatest needs, and we're now up to about 9 to 10 boreholes a week.

So, it's really catching on.

>> Let me ask you a question about sustainability.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> Once the typical well is drilled... >> Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

>> ...you refer to it as water hole... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...what's the longevity of that source of water?

>> Borehole -- okay, got you.

What we do is do a contract with the company for maintenance because a lot of people do the boreholes or the wells and walk away.

That's no good if you don't have a maintenance contract because after a period of time things can get contaminated.

So, we have a maintenance contract so that it's sustainability.

Secondly, we don't just go and leave the water.

We endeavor to try to bring a type of a source of income, financial sustainability, like crops, community gardens, and different things like that, so that they can begin to not only have dignity but have a way of being able to pull themselves up.

So, it's not just going to give them water.

We do the tiny houses.

We do the schools, all the different things to bring a type of infrastructure and community for the people.

>> You mentioned Niger.

That's in the southern part of the Sahara Desert.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> You mean to tell me there is water under the Sahara Desert?

>> I know!

I know!

It's just so amazing how the Creator created the earth.

In the scorching Niger desert, when you drill, there's literally ice-cold water -- what a paradox, so to speak.

But it's amazing.

So many people are dying.

One-fourth of the world has no access to clean drinking water out of almost 8 billion people.

And they're sitting on their solution.

So, I think it's incumbent upon us, those of us that have the ability to do something, to come together and really be our brother's keeper.

Like, if we have clean water, we should want the same for them.

>> How are other NGOs working with you to solve Africa's water problem?

>> We collaborate together.

Collaboration is key, and you're able to do more.

You have more leverage when you collaborate.

We can't always look to government.

We should hold them responsible and accountable to do it because they should be the ones that's doing it.

The places that we're going in and providing boreholes, the government should be doing it.

However, we can't wait on them to do it.

Hold them responsible.

But while we're waiting, collaborate together.

Different organizations, entities, individual people -- we have grannies that say, "I want to get involved in this."

We have kids that say, "I want to take this back to my school."

And it's just simply opening up our heart and caring about someone.

The very thing that we commonly take for granted?

They need that to live.

>> From your experience over the last 40 years, how has climate change impacted scarcity of water?

>> It has impacted it greatly, and it's not going to get any better.

It's going to accelerate.

So, we have to do something.

It is estimated that 60,000 wells or boreholes are needed in just sub-Sahara Africa alone to sustain over the next 30 to 40 years.

>> 60,000 more wells.

>> 60,000, absolutely.

So, just imagine if governments are not making it a priority, and churches are not making it a priority, politicians not making it a priority, businesses not making it a priority.

Even in our own country -- look at Flint.

If you ignore one of the greatest crises, which claims more lives -- that's the part that's so awakening, Ben, that it claims more lives than Ebola, AIDS, or the coronavirus, just simply not having clean water.

And it can be provided for 12 cents a day.

So, there has to be -- like waking up a sleeping giant and saying, "Wait a minute.

What are we doing?"

You know, "What's the greater priority?"

The greater priority is water is life.

You can't do anything without it.

They need it to live.

>> Can the United States learn something from what you've learned in Africa and vice versa?

>> If you see the common denominator -- what's the common denominator here, Ben?

What is Flint predominant?

You think about the economic level there is ignored because it's not a gain.

It's not an interest there.

And we see in the communities where someone is benefiting from what they want.

But the people themselves, the residents that are having the most substandard water and having the greatest crisis, are ignored.

And so, there has to be an advocate, a voice of advocacy that says, "Even though this may be a low-income," you know, compared to perhaps some of the other cities or whatever, "people matter."

And the same thing with Congo or Liberia or Sierra Leone or Chad.

People matter.

So, we have to begin to look and see where the people are just the lowest level of poverty have some of the greatest water challenges, and no one takes the time to care about it because there's no interest.

>> There appears to be a global water crisis, a global water demand for clean water.

What do you see?

Is the United Nations helping, moving in this direction?

>> They are doing some.

They are doing some.

>> I know you are on the nonprofit side, the philanthropic side.

So, let me know what you're seeing in terms of some of these collaborations.

>> We can begin to operate on a very grassroots level, like we're doing.

It doesn't take much to drill.

Drill, drill, drill.

The water is there.

And so, I say things like this.

We lay out a plan of adopting a people, adopting a community.

>> How much does it cost to set up to drill for one drill, a hole in the ground?

It depends on different depths.

>> Yeah, whether solar-operated.

>> Whether the aquifer level close to the surface.

>> How far you have to drill, mm-hmm.

>> How far you have to drill.

But on the average?

>> The average is $3,000, Ben.

>> $3,000 to drill a well.

>> To drill a well that a community of several hundred people, several families can have sustainability and clean water and which would improve their health, their everything.

And $3,000 is not a lot of money.

>> And how much to maintain a $3,000 well on an annual basis?

>> It depends on the economy of that particular country, but most of the service contracts that we have are, like, $150 a year.

So, when you really think about it, when you think about value systems, isn't the value of a whole community -- because, remember, as we said, with the climate situations, climate change is not going to get any better.

So, either we invest now and do something about it now, or it's going to claim more lives.

>> How are young people around the world responding to the water crisis?

>> The creatives, the Gen Zs, the millennials, who will say to themselves, like, "Wait a minute.

This is the baton you guys are going to pass us?

You're going to leave us a baton where one-fourth of the world has no access to clean water, and it can be provided for 12 cents a day?"

And they have this mentality of "push up our sleeves and do something."

And they are the ones that are leading the charge.

We basically in this app, because this generation, you know, they're all with apps and, you know, it's a Clubhouse app.

And a dear friend of mine, Apostle John Eckhardt, he was one of the first ones said, "Let's just do 100 in a year."

And these millennials, Gen Zs, they came together, and in just maybe two, three weeks, they've done over $50,000 at, like, 15 wells.

>> What's the name of the app?

>> It's called Clubhouse.

It's a free app download, when you come and chat, and they come in there and raise the money for a well and challenge each other.

And so, like, we're just basically looking at the greatest needs and hitting those areas that have the greatest needs on a very grassroots level.

We take the indigenous people that are there.

We do all the surveying.

They come and find out where the water is, and then we wire the money over.

We have a very strong accountability place intact, and within 24, 48 hours, you can have a borehole.

And that's what's happening, as you saw today, the one that's sitting in Niger, right in the middle of the Sahara Desert, scorching desert -- fresh, clean water underground.

>> And it is amazing.

>> Isn't it amazing?

>> For our viewing audience, what is your website?

>> WaterThruLife.

>> WaterThruLife.com?

>> Dot com, exactly.

>> And so, if you go to that website, what do you find?

>> Everything that we've been doing.

They'll see the steps.

We actually have the strategies, the solutions, the steps, the practical strategies of how to mobilize people, create an awareness, how different people can connect on whatever level they want to connect on, and also, too, we extend people an opportunity to come and go.

Wherever the area is that you want to go do your borehole, come and go and be a part of it.

They love that hands-on.

That's what this generation loves.

They want something that's relative.

They want something that works.

It's not enough to just look at the problem.

And so, they get an opportunity to go and be a part of actually drilling that borehole.

And it's just nothing like seeing that water come up out of ground.

And all along that water was underground.

One of the areas we're working is a place called Limpopo in South Africa near the national park, where you have the game park.

And look at this again.

Tourists from all over the world go to Kruger National Park, these national parks.

And right outside of the park in Limpopo is a village that doesn't have clean water.

So, the women go to the river, and the children go to the river to get their water early in the morning, and there's hippos and there's crocodiles in the water.

And it's common, common attacks all the time.

So, you're making all that money from the game park, and the village right out of the game park doesn't have access to clean water, and they're putting their lives at risk just to wash their clothes and just to get water.

So, as we speak here now, we're drilling in Limpopo, and guess who did it?

The young people came together, and they're just like, "We can do this.

We can actually do this."

And that's what I want to leave with people that are watching.

We can do this, and we can collaborate together.

Doesn't necessarily have to be in my initiative that I'm doing, but it could be people that are doing that, that are out doing and have an initiative for clean water, connect with each other.

And I believe that it doesn't matter whose name is on it.

What should matter the most is the recipients, the precious people who have not had that privilege to have access to what we take for granted.

>> What drives you?

>> I love people, Ben.

I love people.

I love lifting people.

I love being a part of a solution that when I look back over my life and as I'm getting older, I look back and see, like, things that used to matter don't matter.

Your value systems really shift.

And to think I can keep somebody alive, and they can have life.

For women it's more somehow than it is to men because for women, 80% of the women in rural Africa spend 80% of their life looking for clean water.

She gets up in the morning.

She needs water for her kids to bathe.

She needs water to cook.

She needs water to do the laundry.

And so, they're spending their whole life looking for something that's right there.

And so, who am I?

Am I better?

What did I do?

What application did I fill out to be born?

What application did I fill out to live in America?

I didn't.

We're not better.

We should be trusted -- trusted to take what we have and just break off a piece to help those to whom nothing has been prepared.

That's what drives me, that right now, in Niger, for the next few generations, they have access to water.

And I didn't have to -- I didn't have to forfeit my life to make it happen.

It's not a big sacrifice to just simply open up our heart and care.

I love to connect on any level.

Some people that would love to go -- we have trips where people can come and be a part of the water projects that we're doing.

We build tiny houses.

Some people love the housing piece.

They come, and we do a tiny house in a day, and you get to connect with the families and connect with the people that you provided the borehole for, because it's not just like sending money to an organization.

Some people really want to see the connectivity, want to be a part of their lives.

You'll find people that did a borehole in a particular village and say, "You know what?

Well, we'd like to do a school."

And so I believe that something happened through the pandemic.

First of all, Ben, it made us realize we need each other.

And it made us realize that none of us were exempt from something happening to us, that type of a global crisis.

And I'm trusting that as a result of that, something good has come out of that, that we will realize, the same way we had to, you know, come together and nations had to come together, and we realize how we needed each other.

May we, as things are starting to lift and shift and change, may we not go back to that self-focused life of taking care of mine, "me and my four, no more," but remember that that should have taught us something.

We need each other.

And I believe in life, Ben, we're blessed to be a blessing.

>> Do you see a global movement expanding around providing clean water for all people, no matter what their race, no matter what their ethnicity, no matter what continent that they may live in?

>> Or their religious belief or whatever, because we're all people.

We have the same basic need.

You're helping me to do that right now, Ben, by allowing me this platform to create awareness.

And just as your heart was opened to allow me to come, and there may be someone that's watching this that says, "I want to help that little girl from Winston-Salem, 'North Cackalacky,' who, you know, from North Carolina, who just wants to in her life do something that will make a difference."

And these young people, they're really getting on board.

And I trust that it will become a movement.

It can be.

It can be.

>> Well, Dr. Patricia Bailey, getting water to people in Africa and throughout the world, thank you so much for joining "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> And thank you for allowing me to come.

>> Thank you.

>> For more information about "The Chavis Chronicles" and our guests, please visit our website at TheChavisChronicles.com.

Also, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, we are committed to diversity and understand our responsibility in supporting and empowering diverse communities.

Diversity and inclusion is integral to the way we work.

Supporting the financial health of our diverse customers and employees is one of the many ways we remain invested in inclusion for all today, tomorrow, and in the future.

American Petroleum Institute -- through the core elements of API's Energy Excellence Program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry in the U.S. and around the world.

You can learn more at api.org/apiEnergyExcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to empowering people to choose how they live as they age.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪