Two recent donations from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will impact the ability of people in two African communities to get access to clean water.
The Church collaborated with Catholic Relief Services in Liberia to fund a water, sanitation and hygiene project. The work will benefit more than 7,000 people in a remote community in Paynesville, Montserrado County, Liberia.
The Church has helped bring clean, safe water to several areas of the world in recent months, including in the Philippines, where the Church provided plumbing to an elementary school in Davao City. A remote village in southern Papua New Guinea now has a centrally located water well that provides stable, healthy water, after a donation from the Church in May. And the Church has supplied the island of Savai’i in Samoa with water tanks 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 to key parts of the community.

The donation was celebrated May 2, 2025, according to a news release on the Church’s Africa Newsroom website.
Nyamah Lablah, a community chairperson, thanked the Church for the donation at the celebration.
“You people made our dream come true,” she said. “We have really suffered for water in this community.”
Lablah said before the well was built, many children would be late to school because of long waiting periods at the community well.
Theophilus Davis, a technical adviser with Catholic Relief Services, said the Church-sponsored water project was the “biggest, improved and modernized” water-sanitation-hygiene project Catholic Relief Services has undertaken.
“We’re not just dedicating a water facility, but we’re dedicating something that has been improved and modernized and is going to expand through different sections of the community,” he said.
Elder Prince S. Nyanforh, a newly called Area Seventy, told those gathered for the celebration to take good 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.
“We’re happy that we could serve you today,” he said.
The Church has also collaborated with The Ga Mantse Foundation and the Ga Traditional Council to launch a similar water project in Accra, Ghana.

The Ga king, Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, and other local government leaders joined local Church leaders for an official project launch on April 29, according to a news release from the Africa Newsroom.
While the project in Liberia will help people living in a remote area, Accra is dealing with an influx of people with not enough clean water.
Alfred Nii Ashie Kotey, a member of Parliament, said the water shortages in the area worsen each year.
Elder Samuel Annan-Simons, Area Seventy, said the project emphasizes the Church’s commitment to sustainable development and service.
“This project reflects the values we hold dear in our faith — service, compassion and love for our fellow man,” he said. “As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are taught to love our neighbors and care for those in need.”
