In India, the three of us (Shauna, Suneel, and Dan) continue our quest to explore water challenges and solutions across civilizations, from ancient to cutting-edge.  

We start in Delhi, with the Sehgal Foundation team Lalit Sharma, Aparajeeta Vaibhav and Yashi Gautam catching up on their research on point-of-use treatment solutions, working together on strategies for scale and meeting with their clients and collaborators. 

One of our highlights was the opportunity to meet with a few of the organizations Lalit and his team have trained and supported. 

We would like to introduce you to one person in particular. Anil Sharma, founder of Sathi, a small local organization working in the Western Himalayas.

Anil travelled 12 hours roundtrip by train and car from the Himalayas to meet us because he wanted to meet the people behind the biosand filter. 

In 2007, Anil's son fell sick from drinking contaminated water in his school and was hospitalized. Anil discovered that the reverse osmosis treatment system at the school was not being maintained properly and went in search of other solutions. He took training on the biosand filter from SAPWI—another organization trained by CAWST—and built a filter for his home and then for others in his community. 

Now, 18 years later, Anil and his team at Sathi have built 5,000 filters reaching 30,000 people with safe drinking water. His son is now 24 years old and taking his PhD in atomic physics at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland.

We’d like to share Anil’s story in his own words (click the video below):

Chemical contamination, nutrition and climate change

Dan: I had no idea that in places with high levels of naturally occurring fluoride, ongoing exposure to this fluoride goes far beyond tooth decay. Fluorosis (an extremely high cumulative amount of fluoride in the system) harms red blood cells, bones and intestines.

There is a vicious cycle between fluorosis and nutrition: poor nutrition leads to greater susceptibility to fluorosis, and fluorosis leads to reduced nutritional uptake in the digestive system which then amplifies susceptibility to fluorosis.

Sadly, climate change is making this all worse. As water scarcity increases, the concentration of chemical contamination is increasing in the remaining groundwater. In India alone, more than 90 million people have or are at risk of developing fluorosis. 

Watch a short video from Yashi Gautam talking about fluorosis and research: 
https://youtu.be/p3oOr0QLeDY

Active research areas at Sehgal Foundation 

Suneel: Lalit first met Shauna in 2005 at an international rainwater harvesting conference in India. He is a civil engineer, who has a long history in design and construction of rainwater harvesting structures and aquifer recharge.

He learned about the biosand filter from Shauna and several years later, in 2016, he wanted to train other organizations and got back in touch with us at CAWST. 

I’m continually inspired by Lalit’s knowledge and commitment to advancing research on themes that have yet to be solved, in a very practical and scientific way. He's grounded on reaching people living in extreme poverty. He has also built an India Household Water Treatment Network that now has over 350 members.

To hear what excites Lalit about his work in WASH currently, watch his quick one-minute video: https://youtu.be/HFWK0TJcVJs

WhatsApp is everywhere!

Dan: In India, WhatsApp dominates the communication landscape. From urban to the most rural centres, WhatsApp is the main channel for communication with friends, family, colleagues and businesses.

For CAWST, WhatsApp groups are commonly set up for a cohort that attended a training: a zero-cost way to encourage dialog and peer-to-peer support after training. We’re curious to hear more about how WhatsApp is used by other organizations and communities that we visit during the rest of our trip. 

Wrapping up on ancient water solutions

Shauna: The first step-wells in India date back to 550AD. In the photo below, Lalit is showing the three of us (Suneel, Dan and me) the Agrasen Baoli step-well in Delhi, refurbished at least twice—once in the 14th century and once more recently.

We're now headed south to Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Madurai (all in India) and surrounding communities where we’ll meet R. Seenivan. This is the person who brought the biosand filter to India in 2004 and helped define CAWST’s model as it is today!

Our next Global Notebook will share this story and more….

- Shauna, Suneel and Dan

This blog is a republished version of our Global Notebook e-series. Be the first to get an exclusive inside look into our work abroad and feel like you're there alongside us. Subscribe to Global Notebook to get real-time updates straight into your inbox and hear our stories before anyone else. Travel with CAWST’s Global Advisors as they bring water and sanitation to communities around the world. Subscribe now.