PREVENTING PLASTIC POLLUTION with CLEAN WATER - INDONESIA
In 2019, Gravity Water launched the Indonesia Clean Water Initiative. Like many regions in Southeast Asia, Indonesia experiences large amounts of rainfall; unfortunately, most communities don't have access to safe drinking water, making them depend on purchasing single-use bottled water, boiling the water, or risk getting sick. By far, the most common way people access safe drinking water is through single-use bottles, due to their cheap cost and convenience. Unfortunately, this creates a significant inconvenience to the Earth.
With purchasing bottled water as the primary approach, some communities go without safe drinking water when they face financial insecurity and rely on drinking from local water sources instead, risking getting sick.
In February of 2019, Gravity Water worked with one of these communities at a school in the Kintamani Region of Bali, where 300 students relied on single-use 240ml plastic water bottles when they were available, and stagnant surface water when they were not; this was leading to continual cases of waterborne illness throughout the year. After further research, Gravity Water realized the children were consuming approximately 60,000 single-use plastic bottles per year, and this was only for part of the year!
Through working with the school to install a Gravity Water system and retrofit the school's pre-existing 20,000 liter water tank for rainwater harvesting, Gravity Water not only provided the school with a permanent and free source of safe drinking water, it also prevented 60,000 single-use plastic bottles from entering the environment each year with an estimated removal of approximately 1 Million single-use plastic bottles from the environment over the course of the System's lifespan.
In 2019, Gravity Water aims at working with collaborative partners to not only provide 1,000+ children with safe drinking water but to also prevent 250,000 single-use plastic cups from entering the environment by the end of the year.
2019 CLEAN WATER INITIATIVE - VIETNAM
In 2017, Gravity Water launched the Vietnam Clean Water Initiative, focusing on providing public schools with safe drinking water, completely energy-free. Vietnam was an ideal location for Gravity Water, since the country already employes rainwater harvesting as a standard method for water sourcing. Unfortunately, the rainwater harvested is usually stored at ground level, making the water difficult to filter and available to contaminants. Since most communities already had vast experience in rainwater harvesting, the adoption and integration of Gravity Water systems by the local communities were immediate.
However, many areas in Vietnam, such as the Bac Ha area in Northern Vietnam (see video below), utilize surface water from rivers and streams. Since agriculture is one of the nation's primary revenue sources, many of the water sources in rural communities suffer agricultural pollutants, parasites, and bacteria. Through Gravity Water's rainwater harvesting and filtration systems, students are no longer at risk of getting ill, allowing them to thrive, grow, and discover new and innovative ways to help solve local environmental issues and create a healthier community and Earth.
Since 2017, Gravity Water has provided over 3,000 children with safe drinking water in Northern Vietnam. In 2019, Gravity Water aims at working with collaborative partners to match this historical target, bringing the total number of children provided safe drinking water to 6,000 every day by the end of the year.
2019 CLEAN WATER INITIATIVE - NEPAL
Gravity Water was launched in 2016 in Nepal in response to the devastating earthquakes that struck the country the year prior. What started as an immediate relief effort, Gravity Water systems proved to be one of the most sustainable, affordable, and easiest ways to provide permanent access to clean drinking water for schools within the Kathmandu Valley.
The greatest challenge that Nepal faces in regards to water is contamination from sewage in urban areas, which enters their groundwater sources, and parasites and infectious diseases, such as cholera, in rural areas. The issues with waterborne illness are most severe during the rainy season, which takes place during the summer months following the Indian Monsoons. This is due to the number of pollutants that enter water sources during rain events.
Through using Gravity Water systems, communities are now utilizing rainwater harvesting as a way to safely store rainwater without risk of pollution from sewage, parasites, and infectious diseases, while also creating an energy-free way to filter the water.
Since 2016, Gravity Water has provided over 5,000 children with safe drinking water at schools across the Kathmandu Valley. In 2019, Gravity Water aims at working with collaborative partners to provide an additional 2,000 children with safe drinking water through working with the rural communities in the Madan Kundari region of Central Nepal.