Our crowd steps up for families in Rajasthan
The 成人大片 entered the dynamic world of crowdfunding in 2017. Thanks to the generous response of our University community, more than 1,000 families in India鈥檚 north-west will have the capacity to maintain a reliable supply of life-sustaining pure drinking water.
Conducted on the online platform Pozible during November, the campaign aimed to raise $30,000 to fund the development and supply of self-assembled water purification kits for 1,000 households in Rajasthan, a sister state of South Australia. $32,000 was raised, ensuring the life-saving project will go ahead in 2018.
According to project lead Dr Cris Birzer, Director of the University鈥檚 Humanitarian and Development Solutions Initiative, and a senior lecturer in the University鈥檚 School of Mechanical Engineering, it鈥檚 an incredibly exciting achievement.
We鈥檙e absolutely thrilled with this result. I can鈥檛 thank our supporters enough. All our research costs are now covered, and we鈥檒l be able to produce and install the full complement of kits for Rajasthani families. It鈥檚 estimated around 1.5 million people worldwide, predominantly children, die from drinking contaminated water every year. So this is an important step towards reducing that toll.Dr Cris Birzer
Papua New Guinea. Employing a clever combination of sunlight, gravity and readily available low-cost basic materials, the kits in their current form can produce up to 10 litres of pathogen-free water per day and the design enables affordable local replication.
However, in Rajasthan they must perform another critical function. 鈥淚n addition to pathogens, Rajasthan鈥檚 water also contains heavy-metal contaminants,鈥 Dr Birzer explains. 鈥淪o our first step will be to do some onsite assessments so that we can adapt the kits with appropriate, locally sourced filters. The Indian plant Moringa, for example, can be used to remove arsenic from contaminated water, so could be mixed into a sand filter as a simple addition.鈥
Dr Birzer will be going to India in autumn and the team has also started discussions with key personnel in Chennai (South Eastern state of India), and interested parties in Nepal to further the work. 鈥淥nce we are confident that the Rajasthan project will be sustainable, then we can start to expand through India and Nepal.鈥
The Rajasthan campaign鈥檚 success has encouraged the University to seek crowdfunding for a number of other high-impact research and development initiatives. Keep an eye on our various social media channels throughout 2018 to learn how you can get involved.
Inspired by this story?聽To discuss how you can support future crowdfunding campaigns, please get in touch with the Development team on +61 8 8313 5800 or development@adelaide.edu.au.