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One of the things I most like to do at Water Centric, is inform and engage the next generation on global problems and challenges related to getting a staggering 2.6 Billion people access to sanitation and 1.2 Billion access to clean water.
This spring, I had the pleasure of visiting four great New England universities: Boston University, Tufts, Brown, and Brandeis to talk to students about this issue and tell them about what we are doing here at Water Centric. I was invited to be a guest lecturer for students focused on a range of interests from Non-Profit Management (at BU), to International Conflict and Coexistence (at Brandeis), the Economics of Urbanization (at Tufts) and a discussion on Careers in the Common Good (at Brown).
One thing I’ve learned for sure: if the critical challenge of delivering clean water and sanitation to the world’s most impoverished people is ever going to be solved, we will need the energy, enthusiasm, can-do attitude and smarts of this current generation of students.
This week , one newspaper article put the challenge this way:
“In 1950, fewer than 30 percent of the world’s 2.5 billion inhabitants lived in urban regions. By 2050, almost 70 percent of the world’s estimated 10 billion inhabitants – or more than the number of people living today – will be part of massive urban networks. … As these megacities evolve in the developing world, many groan under the weight of a sudden, massive, and unprecedented demand for services never seen in the West. The basic necessities of clean water [and] sanitation systems to remove megatons of garbage and human waste…are creating one of the greatest logistical challenges ever seen in human history.” The Christian Science Monitor, May 10, 2010
We, at Water Centric, look forward to young people rolling up their sleeves to tackle the problems the world has been struggling with for decades. I am convinced that they may also be our best hope for success!
Lotika
Lotika Shaunik Paintal
Founder and Executive Director
Water Centric, Inc.
Here is a perspective from Raj Melville, a Water Centric Board member.
Saturday morning, as Boston area residents greeted a gorgeous spring day, a pipe that delivers water to over 2 million Bostonians, ruptured. Hundreds of millions of gallons of water gushed out at a rate of 8 million gallons per hour. The Governor declared a state of emergency and imposed a blanket order for homeowners and businesses to boil the water now flowing from their taps.
What followed was two days that most Bostonians could never have imagined. There was a run on bottled water at stores, reports of scuffles, and rumors of price gouging as millions of people had to struggle to find clean water for the first time in their lives.
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority tapped into a backup reservoir water system, but that was unfiltered and described as “untreated pond water.”“Don’t drink the water unless you boil it first,” said authorities.”You may use it for bathing but be sure not to swallow any.” Some residents walked miles carting water bottles. People were concerned they would not get their regular caffeine fix, while others said “I can’t even shower. I don’t want to get any nasty water on me.’’
In the space of 48 hours Boston residents instantly got a first hand lesson on how over 1 billion people -nearly a sixth of the world’s population- live without access to clean water. While residents still had running water coming out of their taps that they could boil, millions around the world still have to walk that mile or more daily, carrying gallons of water on their head. While city residents were fretting about how many minutes to boil water to kill the bacteria, they did not have to deal with the putrid, brown fluid that passes for useable ‘potable’ water in most of the developing world.
Water Centric has been working hard to bring clean water and sanitation solutions to the millions of people who do not have that luxury around the world. Little did we imagine that our very own office in Lexington, Massachusetts would be impacted by a loss of clean water! Today as residents of Boston celebrate their repaired water system and a fresh glass of water, we hope their thoughts turn to the millions who go through this day after day around the world and reach out and do something to help. A six dollar donation ensures water, sanitation and hygiene education to a kid in a school in India. A complete set of services to a typical school of 1000 students costs just $6000. Every little bit helps!
Don’t forget to right click to print and carry!
Hey Boston area residents -
This May Day, Saturday, May 1, 2010, eat at Uno Chicago Grill in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and you will provide direct aid to over 1000 school girls who need clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education in their slum school in Delhi, India.
Here’s how it works:
- Print out the tickets above and give them to your friends/family/anyone.
- On May 1st, when anyone eats lunch, dinner, drinks @ bar,or does take-out and presents the ticket (during bill payment), WaterCentric will be given up to 20% of the sale amount.
Uno’s is at 22 JFK Street in Harvard Square in Cambridge.
Water Centric’s goal is to raise $6000 to improve the lives of over 1000 schoolgirls studying in a municipal school in Sri Niwas Puri area by renovating and building functional toilets and water stations in their school plus training the teachers and kids to participate in maintaining these new facilities via active student-run hygiene education clubs.
Enjoy your pizza – a tasty way to raise dough.
A thousand little girls will thank you!
Brand New Water Station
Over 1000 little girls now have a brand new water station at the Jasola Village Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) school in Delhi, India. The water station replaces a decades’ old station made of cement. It had only three faucets and no sink to stop the running water from splashing on the children, leaving puddles where mosquitoes breed.
The new station triples the number of water faucets, provides a sink shelf to catch the running water so that it doesn’t fall on the childrens’ clothes and shoes, and is lined with beautiful tile which dries more quickly and stays cleaner than cement.
The water station is used daily by the children for drinking water, to wash their hands, and clean their lunch dishes and cups.
Construction began on February 4, 2010, and was completed on February 26. Congratulations to our local partner Sakshi and to all the young users at the school!
Old, Dirty Water Station
Diwali, also known as “Festival of Lights,” is a time of celebration and thanksgiving in India, for victory of good over evil. This year, in honor of Diwali, on November 5 2010, Water Centric is hosting a six-month Twitter Diwali campaign – “Twiwali” - so that people can express their gratitude for the essentials of clean water and sanitation - while helping others to have the same - by making a simple donation and creating awareness through social sites like Twitter. What follows is one Water Centric volunteer’s account of why he is grateful for toilets. We encourage you to submit your stories on why you are grateful for toilets to our blog as well
A surreal bathroom experience!
By Bhaskar Koukuntla
On a cold November evening, my wife and I decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary by having dinner with a few of our family friends at the Mantra restaurant in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Mantra is very close to our respective work places and is conveniently nestled on a side street between the Theatre district and Downtown Crossing. We had heard a lot about this place as the only restaurant in Boston serving Indo-French cuisine, and that it is located in a building that was previously a bank constructed in the 1800’s. Their décor is unique and in fact their bar is a former “Teller’s cage.” Details of the décor include marble walls and floors, silk drapery, and exotic mirrors with beautiful lighting.
Upon arriving at the restaurant, I paid a visit to the Men’s Room. It was stunningly beautiful with elegant mirrors, very clean and exotic sinks, and elegant glass stalls. The doors to the individual stalls were made of what looked like translucent glass and looked beautiful. Once I stepped in, I was shocked that I could see the outside! My friend was at the sink washing his hands and he suddenly turned around, looked towards my stall and pointed his finger towards me and started laughing. I was shocked!!! I felt embarrassed and wondered how the restaurant could have not thought about this. I suddenly felt very vulnerable and awkward for such lack of privacy.
When I emerged, pretending that I had not noticed anything, my friend explained that you cannot look in from the outside, however the user can see out from inside the stall. This was trick décor with no compromise to privacy at all!! But just the illusion that my privacy was compromised had made me sick to my stomach.
Putting this surreal bathroom experience in perspective, millions of underprivileged families and kids around the world do not have access to the most basic sanitation facilities. They sit outdoors every day exposed to prying eyes and the elements! Water Centric is currently working towards constructing functional toilets for a school for 1433 girls in India. With a small contribution from all of us who are privileged and take such necessities for granted, we can make a change in the lives of all these kids! So this Diwali, spread some light by making a contribution at www.watercentric.org/Twiwali.html
Greetings! We just finished working on an introductory video that will tell you a little more about our 10 school initiative in Delhi. Let us know your thoughts.
The theme for the evening was water and sanitation – or more precisely the lack of water and functional toilets in millions of children’s lives. The event was titled “Turning Social Chatter into Water.” On October 27, Boston’s Tantric India Bistro was a lively venue where people wanting to help the world’s most needy children, chatted, sampled Indian hors d’oeuvres, and heard the compelling story of Water Centric’s work in Delhi, India.
A selection of short videos were shown showing children washing hands and lunch dishes in a decrepit water station; little boys and girls packed like sardines in a tiny classroom, without a single chair, desk, or sink and in some cases without any functional toilets; young school girls wearing colorful scarves, singing about washing their hands!
CEO and Founder, Lotika Paintal, shared firsthand accounts from the world’s most needy children, and answered questions about what Water Centric is doing to help them. Clean water, functional toilets and hygiene education are critical to stopping the cycle of poverty. Find out how you, too, can be part of solving this critical world challenge by hosting a Water Centric reception and presentation. Visit www.watercentric.org to find out more.
Turn Social Chatter into Water!
WHEN: Tuesday, October 27, 2009
TIME: 6:30 – 8:30 pm
WHERE: Tantric India Bistro
123 Stuart Street
Boston, MA 02116
Get informed, inspired and engaged. You are invited to a discussion on the global water/sanitation crisis. Did you know, 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water 2.6 billion people lack access to toilets … and of course this is leading to a huge health crisis!
Yes, we can all do something to change the status quo. Come spend a social evening with Water Centric at Boston’s Tantric India Bistro. Water Centric’s founder Lotika Paintal and other team members will be there to share an insider perspective on the global water/sanitation crisis and what Water Centric is doing about it. Read more at: http://www.watercentric.org
Cost: $20 – includes a drink, hors d’oeuvres, and a great evening! Feel free to bring friends.
“I would get permission to lock all but one of our school toilets and then charge kids at school 10 cents every time they had to use it, so they would realize how important toilets are to kids who don’t have them,” said one creative middle schooler. “Then I’d donate the money to Water Centric to build a toilet for kids in slum schools in India.”
Kids from all over Metrowest Boston learned about “flying toilets” * and water stations during three presentations by Water Centric, as part of the Education and Leadership for a Nonviolent Age (ELNA)’s Annual Leadership Conference of middle schoolers on October 9, 2009. The kids then brainstormed creative ways to organize fundraising events from pumpkin festivals to tag sales so that kids in other parts of the world could have clean drinking water and toilets.
ELNA member middle and high schools are in Natick, Lincoln, Maynard, Shrewsbury, Hudson, Harvard, Westborough, and Lunenburg, Massachusetts in an initiative to encourage children to demonstrate leadership skills, social awareness, and civic responsibility. To learn more about ELNA, click on http://www.elnacollaborative.org/ELNA/Welcome.html
* A ‘flying toilet’ is a plastic bag that gets used as a toilet and is then thrown out the window into the street!
Water Centric finished renovation on a water station for school kids at the Julaina MCD School in Delhi. The old and decrepit station was no longer functioning properly. It leaked, the drains were easily clogged, the foundation area was moldy and unhygienic, it lacked a suitable shelf to collect the water, and there were insufficient taps.All that is in the past. Thanks to funds raised by H2O For Life and Water Centric, and for supervision of the project by its local partner Sakshi, the children have good access to clean water with a renovated and fully functional station. Now, the kids don’t have to get wet in order to get a drink of water and the station is no longer a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The kids are proud of their new facility!
You can follow the progression of this project in our photo journal below. Water Centric was launched in February 2008. Its first initiative is to help provide clean water, functional toilets/sanitation and hygiene education to 10 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools. This project serves the needs of 10,000 students, most of whom come from the poorest and most deprived communities.
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