UNO student Buey Ruey's plan to deliver water to his native Sudan

Well Intentions

by Casey Logan
20 Jun 2007

A little more than a month ago a University of Nebraska at Omaha student named Buey Ruey (Boo-ee Roo-ee) boarded a plane in Omaha, landed in New York, spent six hours waiting to re-board, then flew for another dozen hours before landing in the United Arab Emirates half a world away.   After a 12-hour layover in Dubai, Ruey flew the final leg of his 32-hour trek to Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, where the real journey was about to begin.  

In some ways, the Ethiopia of today was un-recognizable to the Ethiopia he remembered 12 years before.   In Addis Ababa, a substantial transportation system now flowed through the city.   Buses and taxis moved with ease along well-maintained roads.   Internet cafes could be found easily, and, despite an economic situation that would make it seem impossible, the vast majority of teenagers now carried cell phones.   Most homes had telephones and televisions, luxuries of the past that he found to be commonplace today.   In other ways the city was the same.   "Most of the houses that I have seen look as they did," he wrote in his online field diary of the trip.   "The walls are made out of sticks that support the structure, and mud is used to form and insulate the walls.   The roofs are made out of aluminum that is incredibly noisy and disturbing when it rains."  

Compared to where he was headed, though, Addis Ababa was a paradise.   According to his pre-trip research, Ruey was headed to places where people walked several miles a day just to gather a few gallons of water.   For all the attention being directed at Sudan in recent years, one of the country's most basic but deadly issues remains one of its most overlooked: There's just not enough good water.   Available sources are few and far between, and those depended upon are often so rife with bacteria that they cause more harm than good.  

This is why Ruey, a political science and economics major, came back to Africa for the first time since his family left Sudan.   It's entirely accurate to say he came back to save lives, but such lofty rhetoric isn't his style.   To Ruey, he was going back to tackle a simple yet devastating problem, and to do so with a simple, effective and proven solution.  

In fact the biggest question was already answered by the time he boarded the plane from Omaha to New York to Dubai to Addis Ababa.   Months earlier, and from thousands of miles away, Ruey had already found the water.  

Returning Home
In 1995, at age 12, Ruey and his family left their home in Sudan to try and form a better, safer, healthier life in the United States.   They landed first in Nashville, relocated to Minnesota and finally settled in Omaha, where the job market for unskilled labor was favorable and the northern winds slightly more tolerable.  

This was not all that long ago, and yet Ruey could pass for someone who has lived in the United States his entire life.   His English is not just perfect, it's effective.   Earlier this year, while competing on the UNO forensics team, he placed fifth in the Interstate Oratory contest -- "the oldest, most prestigious oratory contest in the country,” according to Ruey's coach and UNO Director of Forensics Abbie Syrek.   The topic of Ruey's oration, a persuasive argument for Aqua-Africa, the nonprofit organization he co-founded, centered on the need for safe water in his native continent. 

"He never even referenced the competitive side of it," Syrek said of the contest.   What pleased him most was someone approaching him afterward and asking how they can get involved. 

"Buey really uses forensics as a means to communicate his thoughts on larger social issues," she said. 

Water is an issue, Ruey pointed out when we met this past May, that Americans have a hard time grasping at first.   For us, thirst is an annoyance easily sated, but in parts of Africa, thirst is a constant and life-threatening reality.   To put the difference into numbers: On a given day the average American uses more than 100 gallons of water.   In Africa there are entire households that must get by with five gallons or less, to say nothing of the impurities that often pollute those gallons.  

At least in theory, Aqua-Africa's solution is shockingly simple.   According to Ruey's research, the area that he's focused on, his native Upper Nile in Sudan, is not all that dissimilar from the farmlands of Western Nebraska in that viable water sources exist in aquifers below ground.   Just sitting there, waiting to be tapped.   And by Ruey's figures, drilling a single water well can serve approximately 3,000 people.  

"With irrigation and all of that, that number can come down, or if [the communities] practice really good conservation efforts, it could go up,” Ruey said.   "We're hoping they'll serve that many people.   It's not just going to provide direct support for the people, it will also have health ramifications and economic ramifications as well.”  

How Ruey arrived at this place and issue is the story of his two selves.   On the one hand, he has never really left Africa behind.   It was once his home, and, if his life continues as planned, it will be again someday.  

On the other hand, he spent his adolescence as an American, and it was an archetypically American experience, the Boy Scouts, that taught him the lesson that would eventually lead him on his mission.  

"The biggest thing the scoutmaster stressed was always go after problems that could be solved,” Ruey said.   "He always said that problems that can be solved are a lot better than ideas that are great.”  

Years later, when Ruey told the same scoutmaster that he wanted to affect change in Africa, a question came back at him: When you were in Sudan, what was it that you most needed?   What was the need?  

"When he said that, it became apparent," Ruey said. "Water."  

Investigating the problem, he realized it could be solved and that doing so required no great leap in innovation.   "We looked at what water supply they already had, and what was there, and it was very, very limited," he said.   "And we spoke with different well drillers in America to see the possibilities."  

Ruey learned the cost for building each water well would be $20,000 -- not a nominal amount, but given the potential returns, a pretty modest investment all the same.   Most important, there was nothing speculative about the technology.   The "how" proved easy.  

Navigating Africa posed the greater challenge.

Navigating Africa
A few days before he left, Ruey spoke about his two-month trip to Africa with the measured optimism of someone who knew, or at least anticipated, that problems lay ahead.   "If I was in the United States traveling I could have a complete itinerary ready," he said.   "But the only itinerary that I'm sure of is me getting to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.   That's the only sure itinerary I have.   From there it's just bargaining with the locals or finding a charter plane or doing something to get to the places I want to go.   So there are a lot of uncertainties.  

"I don't want to paint a bad picture," he continued, "but at the same time it's an unstable country.   It's a war-torn country.   There are a lot of factions.   A lot of people take the law in their own hands in that particular region -- not Sudan, nor Africa in general, just in that region where I'm going.   There are a lot of family loyalties, which could be problematic or it could be to our advantage.   And that's the biggest problem: I just don't know."  

Asked about the violence, Ruey hesitated to give a definitive answer, and yet what followed was an eloquent plea for people to understand the basic, fundamental cause behind most any conflict.  

"I'm obviously not in a position to assess the cause, but from my own vantage point it has a lot to do with economic disprivilege, just like anywhere else," he said, sitting in an Omaha coffeehouse thousands of miles away.   "One group -- whether it's the Nuer or the Dinka or the Arabs -- one group of people has economic superiority over the others and they refuse to give the opportunities for the others to come up.   And that's where the source of the conflict is.   It's not because we hate each other, it's not anything else, in my opinion.   It's that sense of no hope that makes people pick up guns.   Instead of dealing with that issue people will say, 'Oh, they just hate each other.   It will never be solved.'"   Such thinking, Ruey said, acts as an excuse to ignore the real-life problems in Africa.   He mentioned the movie Blood Diamond and its use of the term "T.I.A." -- "This is Africa" -- to explain away the violence that plagues the continent.  

"A lot of Americans and Europeans, they think we're immune to violence and that that's just the way things are in Africa," Ruey said.   "That's not the case.   We're humans, too.   We're dying for peace.   We're fighting for peace, just like how people fought in the French Revolution.   Like people fought everywhere, even in America.   People die for peace, and that's what we're doing, too.   At the same time, people are starting to assume that's what we're all about, and that's not true.   That's the biggest misconception [about Africa], and it's becoming sort of rhetoric right now, which I really dislike."  

With the practicality of Aqua-Africa's well solution already established, Ruey left for Sudan on a mission both scientific and political in nature.   First he needed to determine whether drilling would actually yield the amount of safe drinking water his studies had indicated.  

"It's really difficult to do any type of research in that region just because it has not been done before," he said.   "We've contacted geologists within Ethiopia and contacted a lot of water-well drilling companies to see which areas they have drilled.   We found one about 50 kilometers away that has drilled, and they said it yields a pretty good amount of water.   So one of the tests we have to do is a chemical test, to make sure that the water that's brought up is not worse than the surface water."  

Second, and just as important, he needed to make sure Aqua-Africa would have the cooperation necessary to drill.   His plan involved meeting with well-drilling companies in Africa, performing a site survey of the Maiwut district in southeast Sudan (a potential drilling spot) and reaching out to government and community leaders in the regional capital of Juba and district capital of Malakal for their support.  

Assuming he could sell them on his intentions, and assuming he didn't run into roadblocks along the way, Ruey would be left to raise the capital needed to make his well-drilling dream happen.   He would need to return to the United States and convince people here that for as much attention and charity is paid towards AIDS or the ongoing tragedy in Darfur or the general lawlessness that exists in much of the country, another crisis that requires the world's attention unfolds on a daily basis in Sudan.  

"There are small, micro-problems that need to be dealt with, that can make a greater impact on the people," he said.   "Rather than trying to bring democracy to a country, maybe you might want to try giving them water, and let them decide whether they want to move toward democracy or not.   Democracy would be a dream for us, but you can have all the democracy you want; if you have no water, you're going to have instability."  

Education, Dreams and Resources
While it depends entirely on the results of his trip, Ruey would like Aqua-Africa to be drilling its first water well in southeast Sudan by the end of the year.   That means that in addition to attending classes and studying toward his bachelor's degree, Ruey will be fundraising and trying to plan an international relief effort.  

After graduation, he plans to pursue a master's degree in business administration, and then move back to Sudan to pursue a life of public service and politics.   "We are rich in natural resources.   We are rich in land.   We have a lot of economic opportunities there," he said.   "It's the education that's lacking.   If you have the education and a dream and a way to get it done, you can be successful in Sudan, as you can anywhere else."  

For now, though, his trip continues. Dispatches come sparingly on his online field diary, but Ruey moves on, determined to solve one problem at a time.

"We found a way to bring these people water," Ruey said before he left.   "We just want people to understand how simple it is to get it, how simple it is to drill the water wells, and provide these people solutions.   I guess the overwhelming theme is just the simplicity of the project."  

Reprinted with permission from The Reader