Why Clean Water ?
Because as you read this sentence 163 million Indians fight for access to clean drinking water near them- the highest number in any country across the world.
This means that 163 million Indians struggle every day for this most basic of human rights upon which depends their thirst, their hunger, their personal hygiene, their livelihood and their protection from deadly diseases found in polluted water.
Polluted water kills 200000 Indian per year
and causes 36,000 others to fall sick every single day with water-borne illnesses like cholera, typhoid, viral hepatitis and acute diarrheal diseases.
Women, and often children, in rural India walk an average 5-10 kms per day
carrying upto 15 ltrs of water, often risking physical and sexual assault, to access, gather and transport back home the water they consider safe to drink.
But this doesn’t have to be India’s story of woe.
Access to clean water can gift India’s rural communities:
Health
80% of all water-born diseases are eliminated if the source of water is clean.
Safety
Women and children no longer need to brave unsafe environments in their search for water.
Education
Children are freed from the burden of gathering dirty water, and can instead focus on their education.
Hope
Water access breaks the cycle of generational poverty, and frees people to chart their own future.
Living Water is writing a new story of hope for India’s rural communities by:
Identifying communities in need, surveying and studying their personalised requirements.
Drilling borewells and installing handpumps for shortlisted communities.
Training communities to use and maintain these resources in partnership with local leaders and government bodies.
Testing and monitoring the borewell water and checking equipment functionality over the next five years.
OUR IMPACT
My little girl enjoys accompanying me to the well because it takes very little effort for us to collect water. Mariamma continued, “this well became a life-saver for us during the ‘corona’. Elderly people like me remained safe during these fearful times as we did not have to go to distant places to collect water. Social distancing would not have been possible if we had to wait in long queues in front of the Panchayat tap. My community did not struggle for water even once during the lockdown, as the well is near our homes.”
The transformation of a community – from sickness to health
Tyda is a small tribal hamlet located 90 kilometres from Vishakapatnam in the Anantagiri Mandal of the Vishakapatnam District which is home to approximately 18 households who migrated from Gunna...
The Hand pump that never fails to provide water
When the Living Water India team visited the Veppur community in Perambalur District, they had a tale to narrate - the sad story of how the community lost two small children to the perils of lack of water only a few days prior to their visit. The children had gone to the pond to clean themselves and never returned!
