In honor of World Water Day, The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) initiated a campaign to raise US$25,000 in matching funds to support The Adventure Project (TAP) effort to provide sustainable water services to almost a million people in West Bengal and the District of Sheohar in Bihar, India.

The TAP vision is to train mechanics to repair wells in rural India, where over one third of wells drilled in the past 20 years are in disrepair. TAP set an ambitious goal to fund the training and initial supplying of 186 mechanics who could help sustain a clean water source for close to a million people.

Like any machinery with moving parts, wells with pumps need maintenance every few months to avoid costly breakdowns. Each mechanic can service up to 50 wells, providing water for an estimated 5,000 people. In the end, TPRF exceeded its goal, raising $27,643, an amount that will train and supply 50 mechanics and help an estimated quarter of a million people.

TPRF helped to fund a similar TAP project last year in the state of Bihar. “These mechanics are now operating in a self-sustaining mode,” said Linda Pascotto, President of TPRF. “The goal of this year’s campaign is similar, but on a wider scale,” Pascotto continued. “The aim is to help provide jobs, training and tools to hire mechanics, each of whom works as an entrepreneur to maintain and fix wells. In addition, TAP provides a one-year stipend to help each mechanic launch his or her business.”

Training mechanics to service wells is part of TAP’s goal to create a million jobs over 10 years in developing countries worldwide. TAP was established to increase investments in positive social enterprises around the world, according to founders Becky Straw and Jody Landers.

“I cannot thank TPRF enough,” Straw said, “for all their support, inspiration and shared belief in investing with dignity.”

About The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF)
The Prem Rawat Foundation promotes Prem Rawat’s message of peace and his vision of addressing fundamental human needs so that people everywhere can live with dignity, peace and prosperity. For more information, visit: www.tprf.org.

Image Courtesy of  Pal Teravagimov / Shutterstock.com

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Gasland documentary director, Josh Fox, was arrested on Wednesday, February 1, for what he claims is practicing his First Amendment right. According to usnews.com, the Wayne County filmmaker was arrested in the U.S. Capitol Building after attempting to film a congressional hearing linked with hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

Fox says that after he filed for permission to film the hearing, he never received a response, which prompted him to attempt to film anyway. Capitol Police reported his arrest under unlawful entry, while Fox stated that he was only practicing journalism, according to media reports.

“I was not expecting to be arrested for practicing journalism. Today’s hearing in the House Energy and Environment subcommittee was called to examine EPA’s findings that hydraulic fracturing fluids had contaminated groundwater in the town of Pavillion, Wyoming.

I have a long history with the town of Pavillion and its residents who have maintained since 2008 that fracking has contaminated their water supply.” Said Fox regarding the arrest and congressional hearing, “I was arrested today for exercising my First Amendment rights to freedom of the press on Capitol Hill.”

During an interview, MSNBC host, Ed Schultz, discovered that the filming was being done in order to be featured in a follow-up documentary called Gasland II, also directed by Fox, which is said to be close to completion.  Also during the interview, Fox said that the hearing was going to be led by a Republican subcommittee and that he believed they were going to be attacking the EPA.

Fox was originally inspired to create Gasland after receiving a request to lease his land out for drilling. His website, www.gaslandthemovie.com, claims that after receiving the request, he then traveled up the coast, visiting various different fracking sites and the communities within the surrounding areas. He documented the fracking process and the possible effects the process takes on communities’ drinking water.

Fracking, as the website defines, is the act of drilling for natural gas extraction, utilizing  millions of gallons of water, sand, and proprietary chemicals blasted into deep wells. This process causes the rock and shale to fracture, thus emitting the gases within. For every frack that is completed, anywhere from 80-300 chemicals can be used.

However, due to the Haliburton Loophole, the companies involved in the drilling do not have to disclose the chemicals that are used. The website also claims that there have been over 1,000 reports by courts and governments of contaminated well water within communities surrounding fracking sites.

Fox has become a conflict ridden character within Wayne County, his home. Where some people see him as an activist, others claim he is merely using Gasland as his ride to fame and fortune. The trailer for the film here  may help you base your own opinions.

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Following United Nations Human Rights Day, 61 percent of Americans believe access to safe drinking water and sanitation should be a priority for the United States government when assisting developing nations, according to a recent Ipsos poll of 1,015 adults.

In 2010, safe drinking water and sanitation were declared human rights by the United Nations General Assembly. The recent national poll shows that many Americans agree. In fact, the 61 percent of Americans that supported safe drinking water and sanitation ranked it highest among key U.S. development projects including ones that strengthen basic healthcare, improve opportunities for education, and defense or military training in developing countries.

“Access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation is a right that everyone in the world ought to enjoy but too few are able to realize,” said Senator Dick Durbin. “Water access is no longer simply a global health and development issue; it is a long-term threat that is increasingly becoming a national security issue. I hope this poll gives momentum to our efforts to ensure access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation for everyone who seeks it.”

Nearly one in eight people do not have access to safe drinking water. Providing this basic human need would improve lives, especially the lives of millions of women in developing countries.

Women and young girls spend an average of 26 percent of their time collecting and transporting water for their families. This tireless task prevents girls from attending school and subjects them to adverse health effects from carrying a 40 pound container, the weight of an average first grader, on their heads.

Empowering young girls by allowing them the time to attend school is only one of the ways in which providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation can help millions of people around the world.

“Water is a fundamental human necessity in its own right and vital to sustainable progress in health, education, gender equality, and poverty alleviation,” said John Oldfield, Managing Director of the WASH Advocacy Initiative. “We are doing everything we can to help governments around the world progressively realize the right to water and sanitation in their countries.”

Additional results from this poll show that many Americans appreciate the links between safe drinking water and sanitation and sustainable progress:

• 70 percent of Americans understand that access to safe drinking water and sanitation has a significant impact on reducing illness;
• 66 percent of Americans feel similarly about safe drinking water and sanitation’s effect on improving the quality of life in developing nations; and,
• 46 percent of Americans believe access to safe drinking water and sanitation significantly impacts keeping children in schools in developing nations.

Whether it is described as a human right or simply the right thing to do, more than half of Americans agree it is important for the United States to invest in American-based charities that provide developing nations with access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

homeros / Shutterstock.com

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