People Need Clean Water
Imagine waking up every day, knowing you face a three-mile walk to the nearest water source. Perhaps when you arrive, you will be lucky, and there will be water. Or perhaps the water will have dried up in the heat, or the landowner will charge you an unthinkable price before allowing you to collect the water.
For 760 million people in India, that's their daily reality.
India has 18% of the world's population, but only 4% of the world's fresh water - and most of that is trapped below ground. As a result, more than 54% of India's population faces high to extremely high water stress, making it one of the most water-vulnerable countries in the world.
We are working to change that! We believe that everyone deserves clean water, and we know you believe it, too. Incredibly, clean water is right below their feet - we just need to go get it.
When a village gets clean water, everything begins to change. Children are healthier (the infant mortality rate is immediately cut in half!). Men and women have time to pursue vocational training and employment, creating better lives for their families. Women have time for care-giving, and girls, who bear much of the water-carrying burden, can go to school.
When you give clean water, you give miracles.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What's the difference between a hand pump and an electric well?
In villages with clean aquifers near the ground surface (<250 feet deep), we install hand pump wells that can be used without electricity. Each of these wells provides water for 500+ people every day, 24 hours a day.
In communities where clean water is deep underground, we sometimes have to drill more than 700 feet! Because a hand pump can only pull water from up to 250 feet deep, electric pump wells are the only option for these villages with deep aquifers. These wells are connected to the power grid and supplied with a storage tank and plumbing, so people have access to water even if the power goes out. An electric well provides water for 1,000-1,500 people every day.
Do you send a team from the United States to install the wells?
We have found that it is much more cost effective to rely on trusted local partners to install each well. In addition, using local labor allows the villagers to have agency and ownership for their well, and invests in the local economy as we hire drillers, masons, electricians, and graphic artists for each component of the work.
How do you decide where to build a well?
Once a well is funded, we consult with our local partners, who are familiar with the unique communities around them. A licensed geologist makes sure safe groundwater is accessible at each site, and then our partners choose a final location based on which areas have the greatest need.
Who is Fresh Water Friends?
Fresh Water Friends builds wells for the vulnerable and forgotten - those communities that are so rural or so impoverished that they will never achieve water independence on their own. As a 501(c)3 public charity, we are committed to nondiscrimination - helping everyone get clean water, regardless of class, caste, race, religion, or any other discriminating factor.
How is my donation processed?
Fresh Water Friends works with Network for Good to process all online donations through a secure server. We do not store any of your credit card information. When you make your first donation, you'll have the opportunity to create an account through Network for Good, which will allow you to save your payment options, and access your donation history at any time.
SOURCES:
World Resources Institute – India. https://wri-india.org/blog/indias-first-water-body-census-connecting-missing-links
Cutler, D., Miller, G. The role of public health improvements in health advances: The twentieth-century United States. Demography 42, 1–22 (2005). Accessed at https://scholar.harvard.edu/cutler/files/cutler_miller_cities.pdf
Joint Monitoring Programme, 2023. https://www.who.int/news/item/06-07-2023-women-and...