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Sophomore's
Goal: Clean Water for People in Ghana
Sanita Dhaubanjar
’13, who is raising funds to travel to Ghana
during January to help implement a clean water system.
Support her endeavor by or by check, payable to Community Water
Solutions, 46 Ledgetree Rd., Medfield, Mass., 02052
(include "Sanita Dhaubanjar" in the memo
line).
Dhaubanjar and
her team are hosting a in
collaboration with India House and Thai Garden, two
downtown Northampton restaurants that will donate
15 percent of designated proceeds to the Community
Water Solutions project. To participate, and present it when you dine. |
The
halting statistics tell an unfortunate story for people in
Ghana, a country tucked in the coast of the Gulf of Guinea
in West Africa. Though the country’s southern border stretches
along the Atlantic Ocean, clean, drinkable water is scarce
and largely accountable for the low life expectancy there—59
years on average.
According to the World Health
Organization (WHO), in 2008, 9.5 percent of the deaths of
children under age 5 in Ghana were caused by diarrheal diseases,
which could have been easily prevented with access to clean
water. At that rate, approximately
418 of the 588,000 children born in Ghana this year will
die because of inadequate access to clean water.
Sanita Dhaubanjar ’13,
an engineering major, aims to do something about the grim
situation. Dhaubanjar will travel to northern Ghana on December
30 as a fellow with Community Water Solutions (CWS), a non-profit
organization that starts water treatment businesses in communities
in developing countries. During her month-long stay, she
and three other CWS fellows will use their training in engineering
to design a village-specific water treatment system and center
for a community of 500-1,000 people in need of safe drinking
water.
Committed to ensuring the sustainability
and local ownership of the project, Dhaubanjar and her colleagues
will also provide water treatment training and business management
workshops for local women after the center is built. Even
after she leaves Ghana, the local CWS branch will monitor
the business at regular intervals to ensure the continuation
of the project.
Originally from Nepal, Dhaubanjar
is well-acquainted with the challenges that lack of safe
drinking water can bring. “The little water we see flowing
in our streams is contaminated due to direct disposal of
sewage into rivers,” she
says about her hometown in Nepal. “Even in the capital city,
tap water is hard to come by.”
One in six people worldwide
lack access to safe drinking water, according to WHO.
The
deplorable conditions in her home country have inspired Dhaubanjar
to affect change in Ghana, she says. “I have seen people
struggle with changing the way things work in our communities,
so I want to develop the skills to be able to encourage sustainable
development as it applies to rural areas like northern Ghana.”
Global outreach has a price
tag. To cover the cost for implementation of the project,
supplies for the water treatment center and the team’s room
and board while in Ghana, Dhaubanjar and her colleagues seek
to raise $10,000 in donations. To support the endeavor, or by writing
a check payable to Community Water Solutions, 46 Ledgetree
Rd., Medfield, MA 02052 (please include “Sanita Dhaubanjar” in
the memo). |
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