We are especially focused on clean water projects as clean water has such important implications for life and health. Our annual calendar is the Living Water Calendar. More than 70% of the donations that we receive are specifically for clean water.
Requests come in many forms. In the Pacific requests are usually for water tanks. The tanks themselves are usually not too expensive, between $2,500 and $5,000 depending on the capacity, but getting them to remote islands or high in the mountains of Papua New Guinea can be challenging and costly.
In India and Africa there are many requests for deep borewells. These are more expensive as there is special equipment needed to bring to remote sites, so generally these cost around $15,000 in Africa and about half that in India. In South Sudan, where Sr Rita Grunke olsh has requested borewells for a number of communities, the driller has to bring his equipment and crew from neighbouring Kenya, and so the contractor will only come if there are at least four or five wells to drill.
Locations such as Vietnam have a lot of water but it is often polluted. They typically request water filtration systems that are usually located in a Parish or a clinic run by the Sisters and can provide clean water to the surrounding community. A large system can typically be purchased and installed for around $10,000.
In the Philippines and Indonesia water projects can be concrete tanks or smaller dug wells that use sand and charcoal filtration as part of the well to filter out dirt. As with water tanks the materials can be relatively cheap but getting those to remote locations may be costly.
