Current CAMPAIGN

Water For Tharparkar | 2021-2022

Our Partners for 2021-2022

For 2021 and 2022 we have two brand new partners in addition to the Human Development Foundation. For fundraising and outreach, we will be partnering with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. For North America, we will be partnering with DigDeep. DigDeep got its start building water systems in rural Cameroon and South Sudan. Then, in the Summer of 2013, we got a call from a woman who wanted to donate $50–but she insisted that we use it to bring clean water to families on the Navajo Nation.

On the Navajo Nation in the Southwest, families drive for hours to haul barrels of water to meet their basic needs. In West Virginia, people drink from polluted streams. In Alabama, parents warn their children not to play outside because their yards are flooded with sewage. Families living in Texas border towns worry because there is no running water to fight fires. The number of Americans without running water is actually growing in 6 states and Puerto Rico. So we will be working with them to bring clean water to native American tribes.

The Regions

United States - More than 2.2 million Americans still don’t have hot and cold running water, a bathtub or shower, or a working flush toilet. Millions more don’t have clean water that’s safe to drink. The majority of these people come from Native American tribes who have been disconnected from the main water grid through legislation. Through DigDeep, we will be working with Native American tribes in the South West to build clean water solutions in towns that cannot easily be reconnected to water grids.

Tharparkar - We will be continuing our work with the Human Development Foundation to build solar-powered filtration plants in villages across the Thar desert. The majority of Tharparkar’s residents don’t have access to clean drinking water, with less than 5% having ready access to clean water. There are no pipelines dug to local villages and most wells that NGOs, villagers, and the government have dug dry up due to a lack of rainfall, or are unsafe for human consumption due to a lack of maintenance. People have to travel six to seven kilometres multiple times a day to gather water. With rainfall so low in the desert, they must drink any available water, resulting in 40% of all diseases in children to be contracted through contaminated water.

Our Previous Contribution

In the Summer of 2019, the Youth Water Initiative was founded on the basis of the droughts occurring across Sindh, Pakistan. We began by forming a team to search for sustainable solutions to the crisis and began working with the Human Development Foundation. Throughout the latter half of 2019 and 2020, we hosted virtual peer to peer campaigns and even planned for a coffee shop concert fundraising event, which was cancelled due to COVID-19 safety concerns, and surpassed our initial goal of $8,000 (USD) and were successful in building a solar water pump, solar station, and 4 solar lamps throughout the village, far surpassing our initial expectations.

The Processes

Once we raised the funds, we contracted out the work to the HDF Village Development Organization (VDO). Work began by digging a 150 ft borehole into the ground and installing the solar-powered water pump at the bottom. Crucially important as well, was the appointment and subsequent training of a point person in the village who would be able to perform light maintenance and repairs to the pump so it could stay in use for years to come.

With DigDeep we will be installing solar-powered running water solutions for individual households. DigDeep will install a 1200 gal. cistern, pump, sink, propane water heater, solar panel, battery array, LED lights, charging ports, drain, electrical, and plumbing solutions at each household we fundraise for.

Our Planned Impact

The installation of multiple Solar filtration plants across Tharparkar will affect some six to seven thousand people. Giving farmers access to clean irrigation water, allowing kids to go to school, and both parents to have time to search for a job. With a fundraising goal of over $30,000 we will be able to spread our impact to not only the people of Tharparkar, but that of the Navajo tribes in the United States.

Over the course of the next few months we plan on bringing clean water systems to dozens of households in Navajo tribes in the United States. Each household will be about $4500 dollars in donations