Access to Water for 500 Rural Indian Families

In 2016 India faced one of its worst droughts in recent memory and official estimates suggest that at least 330 million people were affected by acute shortage of water. It seems that this trend will only continue. Helping 500 families may seem like a drop in a bucket when you look at the scale of the challenge that faces people in India.

Thanks to your support we are very close to reaching our current goal to provide access to WaterWheels to 500 families in rural India.

This has made an enormous difference in their lives. Access to water is crucial but the WaterWheels provide so much more. Collection is physically easier. Larger amounts of water can be collected in one go meaning less time given to this task and the opportunity to spend more time creating income. When you're having to walk 3-7km a day to collect it that's huge. As well as physical, financial & logistical barriers, WaterWheels have broken down social barriers too. Water has also been traditionally collected by women. With a handy gadget now available that's not backbreaking to use, collecting water has become more acceptable for men to be involved in too.

You can read and see the difference a WaterWheel made in the life of Narmada in the link below.

You are also part of the bigger story where Wello is making headloading History.

Thanks to the generous support of many donors including you, we helped Wello make headloading history in 2016. Over the past 12 months, Wello have delivered over 10,000 WaterWheels, making a difference in the lives of over 60,000 people across India, Pakistan, Malawi, Zambia, Bangladesh and Haiti. 

It is almost three years since RED International started to work with Wello and raise funds through GlobalGiving for the WaterWheel project in India.

Thanks to your generous support RED International and our partner were able to supply 70 families in Rajasthan with WaterWheels from the first production run in May 2015. In January 2016 a further 30 WaterWheels where made available to families from these rural communities.

Then in April 2016 we were able to order 275 WaterWheels to be distributed to different communities across India:

• 100 more were sent to Rajasthan
• 100 were sent to communities severely affected by the drought, 50 to Maharashtra and 50 to West Bengal
• 20 were sent to two communities in Karnataka
• 25 were sent to Tamil Nadu and given to people living with AIDS or families whose lives have been impacted by HIV and AIDS.
• 5 were sent to Uttar Pradesh 4 of which were provided families from one community (pictured below).
• 25 were sent to our partner's head office in Telangana for local projects and trials there.

Thank you again for your generous support through GlobalGiving which has meant we have been able to provide over 350 families with a WaterWheel to improve their access to water.

We continue to work closely with Wello and their manufacturing partners in India. RED International along with Good Shepherd Community Development are working on plans for 2017 and will use the funds we currently have on hand and those we received in the near future to place another bulk order for WaterWheels in the next few months.

Some of the distributions in 2016 were trials in new areas and we hope to be able to build on those in 2017 so that we can help even more families in 2017.

We would be grateful if you would continue to share this project with your friend and contact so that together we can transform more lives.

Thank you again for being part of this simple but life changing work.

Together let's make headloading history.

Links:

• See the difference a WaterWheel made in the life of Narmada

Could you carry water for 3-6km?

Shiva* is 55 years old. He lives in the Dharmapuri district. He made some protection for his WaterWheel so it’s not damaged on the road. Shiva said: “it is very much useful for me; I can carry four pots of water at a time.”

Mrs S* is a 47 year old widow from another village in the area. Her cow and goat are the only means through which her family survives. The nearest water facility is a well 3km away. The WaterWheel is very useful for her, because it allows her to fetch more water as well as saving time to concentrate on her other work.

WaterWheels also helps to improve the lives of people living with HIV. An individual needs approximately 100 litres of water per day to meet their basic needs; personal hygiene, laundering, drinking, food preparation, and taking antiretroviral drugs - these are more effective when taken with adequate food and at least 1.5 litres of safe drinking water per day (USAID, 2007). It is equally important that people living with HIV and their caregivers are aware of good health and hygiene practices to reduce the risk of infection from other diseases which can affect health.

Thanks to funds raised through supporters like you, RED International has given 20 WaterWheels to families caring for people living with HIV from the Dharmapuri region. The provision of a WaterWheel together with training on hygiene, sanitation, how to identify safe and unsafe sources, and how to improve the safety of drinking water has changed the way water is collected, helping families draw enough safe water to meet those basic needs.

We long to see stories like these multiplied. Please share this opportunity so that more communities can be reached with hope, help and hygiene.

*names changed

The HIV status of those photographed is unknown.