Project Implementers: Project Well and Aqua Welfare Society
Date of Visit: November 2010 | Report by: Rudi Dundas | Photos by Rudi Dundas and Chris Majors
Photographers Ruid Dundas and Chris Majors visited West Bengal, India, touring villages struggling for safe drinking water with Blue Planet Network partners Project Well and Aqua Welfare Society. They were amazed at the tragic situation of arsenic in the ground water and were impressed with the work now being done to provide safe alternatives.
The Water Crisis is not just about scarcity. India has a lot of water, but so much of it we cannot drink.
- Dr. Protap Chakravarti, geologist
Arsenic sediments in the Ganges Valley come from naturally occurring geological formations in the Himalayas.
13 million people are now drinking arsenic tainted water in the 8 affected districts of West Bengal.
It is a terrible public catastrophe.
- Dr. Allan Smith, University of California, Berkeley
The largest mass poisoning of a population in history.
- Nasrin Karim, Director, Earth Identity Project, Bangladesh
Dear Meera,
You are doing an awesome job for your countrymen!!! The world needs a lot of persons like you.
These pictures are fantastic. They tell a story of how governments forget about the people and let them survive on their own.
Very nice. Keep on with the good work…
Best wishes,
Omar
Your pictures capture the hardship and hope of the villagers in India. How many organizations were involved in developing the new and safe water sources depicted in the slide show? How many successful wells have been placed on-line and what is the ultimate goal for the India project with respect to number of proposed wells? Great work!!
Three organizations are involved, Project Well (http://projectwellusa.org/), the partner NGO in India Aqua Welfare Society (AWS), and Blue Planet Network, the funding organization. The program is directed by Project Well, which also does the tracking by collecting data from the field through AWS field staff. In total, 167 modern dugwells have been constructed, and 135 of these are currently functional. Not all are functional because we are encountering geological challenges at many sites due to the sand boiling phenomenon, leading our older shallow dugwells to be dry in the summer. We are continually improving our dugwell designs so that they are as effective as possible in the field, and with our newer designs, water is available throughout the summer months. In addition to constructing and monitoring dugwells, we teach users to maintain the dugwells themselves approaching towards making the program self-sustaining, and we educate the villagers on the importance of drinking arsenic-safe water along with practice of proper personal hygiene. Thank you for your comments. Appreciate it!
Hello,
I am from district of Murshidabad, West Bengal, India, have small water purification plant at Santiniketan, interested to work on purified water at Murshidabad, so I need fund for the same,
Can your organisation help me to make a plant.
With best regards
Amirul Islam,
cell – o9883172028
Hello Mr. Aamirul Islam,
Project Well-Aqua Welfare Society provide technical knowhow to other NGO’s who are willing to implement the modern dugwell program in any community.
Best Wishes