Bondh-E-Shams, Pakistan
Water borne diseases are a leading cause for contagious illnesses and lack of productivity in many societies. Moreover, the scarcity of or lack of access to water itself makes life even harder and in turn halts the progress of the society in question. Bondh-e-Shams (BeS) is an organization dedicated to tackling the water crisis in Pakistan. At the center of this project is providing constant access to clean drinkable water to deprived settlements/villages. These people have to travel multiple hours in order to collect water which in itself is still not clean enough to drink. We analyze the land and water tables in an around the settlements and install a motor to extract the water. The motor is powered using solar panels in order to avoid any sort of environmental damage during electricity generation. Moreover, the extracted water is put through a filtration process to make it safe enough for consumption.
My work with BeS over the summer involved a lot of remote work. I worked throughout the summer for which I was in the U.S. for a month and in Pakistan for two months. I have been working in the research side of BeS. Due to the sites of the working and potential projects being really remote, access to them was not easy. Hence, they could not be visited every single day and required thorough planning before each visit. I was involved in writing out a plan which included instructions for surveying the terrain, writing interview questions for the locals to understand their situation, deciding on where and when work could be started, and which extra options can be put into place.
My tasks also involved identifying funding opportunities for the BeS to operate for the foreseeable future. I researched many viable funding sources that support NGOs in Pakistan and compiled lists that would help us target grant opportunities when we decide to start more projects.
I was also responsible to go through all the research material we had available including data on the areas before and after the installation of the projects. These included video interviews, water table levels, illness rates, education levels, and many more metrics. I was responsible to clean up the data into a manageable format and even translate some of the interviews to English so more people can understand the impact BeS has made.
This organization is run by a very young group of people who are very concerned about the issues Pakistan is facing. All the people I have come into contact with either have day jobs or are still students and yet their commitment to BeS has never come into question. These people have dedicated their time, effort and even finances to this project just for the betterment of some people and in turn, the country. Everyone has been very dedicated in their search for more sites to work on and more lives to improve. This really shows in how many lives BeS has improved through this small NGO. Started in 2014, BeS has certainly come a long way but we are still a small project which is affecting so many lives and yet, has a lot to learn and a long way to go. We are committed to changing lives and increasing our impact every single day.
Water is one of the most basic necessities of life and that makes it even more alarming that 20 million people in Pakistan don’t have access to regular clean drinking water. According to the UN, Pakistan is the 7th most water scarce country in the world, with the water reserves expected to exhaust by 2025. BeS, at the moment, is targeting the problem of the lack of access to clean drinking water. Clean water prevents a lot of diseases and daily fatigue to the family which in turn gives the children more time to study and the adults to improve their homes. Coupled with the use of solar energy, Bondh-e-Shams has also attempted to bypass the issue of limited electrical power in affected areas along with introducing renewable energy. We have also planned to increase the planting of trees in the country especially in and around the places where we install our projects. Furthermore, we aim to use the electricity generated to provide employment, especially to the women in the area. These are all very dire issues that out country is facing and BeS is doing what it can in order to turn around things one village at a time. BeS also plans to work with the government in order to solve the larger water crisis in the country. I believe that institutions like these are crucial for the future of a country especially in times when help from the government has historically been lacking.
If BeS has taught me anything, it’s the fact that there is life outside these office jobs of ours. There’s a whole world out there which is facing a race to survive every single day in so many countries and yet we take so much of what we have for granted. BeS has opened my eyes to the human element of things. However, it also showed me how every organization has multiple facets to it and everyone can help make an impact by working hard in their own defined roles. I am aiming to pursue a career in Computer Science and I believe strongly that I will be forever associated with this organization trying to help out in one way or another. Maybe one day, I can tackle some other issue being faced by our society. If my friends can make a change while they’re working, why can’t I?
In conclusion, I would like to thank the friends and family of Ellen Toll ’77 and the ’68 Center for Career Exploration for making this summer internship a possibility for me. In fact, I would like to thank them on the behalf of all those people in the villages of Pakistan whose lives have been changed by this organization because without them, BeS would not have existed or progressed the way it has. I am also grateful to the larger Williams community including the students, staff, alumni, and even the professors for providing an environment which facilitates creativity and impacts the world in a meaningful manner.
Megamenu Social