Here is some information on what I am doing, and more info to come:
USC Hubli Water and Health Project: Mission
This is a compiled work put together by the USC Team. We hope that it gives our support team better insight to what we desire to accomplish during our time in Hubli.
The World Health Organization has reported that 88% of the 1.8 million deaths resulting from diarrhea can be attributed to unsafe water or inadequate hygiene or sanitation. Unfortunately, a significant population in the city of Hubli, India is victim to these causes, and isn't even aware of it.
The USC Hubli Water and Health Team is in Hubli this summer to continue a project that was started last year with aim to improve the previously mentioned statistics in the community. Their team of three members (Nina Gordon-Kirsch, Alex John, and Bronson Chang), visiting from the University of Southern California in the United States, has evaluated last summer’s work and is ready to improve and expand the project to help the under-served community of S.M. Krishna Nagar. Over the course of the next year the Team will employ local college students to maintain the program and monitor the efficiency of the Team’s water purification technology. Subsidizing the cost for those living within this community, the Team will be providing state-of-the-art purification systems at affordable prices, creating an important sense of ownership and empowerment for the owners of these important devices. The Team will also train a resident(s) of Hubli to be able to order new filters and replacement parts, as well as provide information about the water filters to the local community.
The Team likewise desires to build awareness within the local community about the need to drink purified water. While the source of water they currently receive from the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) is filtered, sewage leakage or the poor management of waste often contaminates drinking water on its way. While the water from these pipes or the bore wells may look clean, it can be hazardous to drink. Even water contained in holding tanks on vehicles which visit the community is by no means guaranteed to be of sufficient, purified quality. The tanks carrying the water are rarely cleaned and the taps through which the water is dispersed may easily be contaminated. Families must be aware that the water they are provided is harmful to their health and is also a catalyst for breeding mosquitoes carrying malaria and other transferable diseases. Local reports have proven this, as communities in the past have fallen victim to water-related illnesses as a result of their consumption of unclean water. The USC Team hopes to shed light on this threatening issue, as confronting the challenge of dirty drinking water is a "gateway" step towards achieving measured, sustainable improvements in a wide array of serious health related issues. Through education at key points of community influence and the measured introduction of new technologies that encourage responsibility over simply charity, the Team will use its time in Hubli to affect change that is both scalable and sustainable.
India here I come!
