Our drinking water supplies are under threat.
The heavy application of chemical pesticides now practiced in agricultural zones around the globe has caused serious damage to ecosystems and constitutes a grave threat to human health. Exposure to pesticides can cause diseases of the endocrine and reproductive systems, neurological disorders, and cancer, among a panoply of other poisonous effects.
Nowhere is the threat to human health posed by pesticides more pronounced than in 'developing' countries such as Thailand and India, where lax or non-existent regulations permit the intensive application of many chemicals deemed too hazardous to human health and the environment for use in the West. In Thailand, for example, poisonous agrichemical runoff has contaminated over 86% of surface waters – waters that serve as the main source of drinking water for most of the rural population.
At AqueousSolutions, we're developing rugged, elegantly simple, low-cost water filtration systems that can be constructed using locally abundant materials by just about anyone, just about anywhere in the world to reduce the threat of exposure to hazardous agrichemicals in drinking water.
Currently we're working with several communities throughout Asia to deploy and monitor a number of prototype drinking water filtration systems, while our research team is performing laboratory experiments to test the effectiveness of different system designs. Our aim is to make freely available the experimental datasets, design specifications and other technical how-to information that will aid people worldwide in designing and building their own water filtration systems.
At AqueousSolutions, we strongly believe in putting the power to ensure drinking water safety into the hands of households and communities, in effort to promote a significant measure of local self-reliance in meeting this most crucial human need.
Aqueous is run by a committed all-volunteer staff, and is currently funded 100% out of our own pockets. Therefore, any donations we receive translate directly into significant advances in our projects.This holiday season, as an alternative to the usual frenzy of shopping and consumerism, please consider supporting our work to help communities throughout the world ensure the safety of their drinking water by making a tax-deductible donation.
Your contribution makes a huge difference:
• A donation of $25 can purchase parts, tools and other equipment for constructing treatment systems.
• A donation of $50 provides for one germicidal ultraviolet lamp unit, a critical part of the water purification system that neutralizes biological contaminants such as waterborne bacteria.
• A donation of $100 provides for the installation of one full treatment system, including a charcoal filtration unit for removing pesticides and one germicidal ultraviolet UV unit for biological decontamination. One such system can provide safe drinking water to a community of up to 30 people.
• A donation of $250 provides immense support for offsetting the thttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifravel and research expenses incurred by our all-volunteer staff. For example, one round-trip airfare from the US to Thailand costs over US$1,000. Currently, all of Aqueous' research and field work is funded 100% out-of-pocket.
Feel free visit our website - www.aqsolutions.org - to learn more about our research and projects.
Please send your tax-deductible donation by check made out to:
"ISEC/AqueousSolutions" (N.B. "ISEC" stands for the International Society for Ecology and Culture, Aqueous' parent 501-C3 organization and fiscal sponsor.)
to
ISEC USA
PO Box 9475
Berkeley
CA 94709 USA
You may also donate by PayPal through our website, though currently we are unable to offer tax-deductible status to donations received this way.
Thank you for your support!
– the AqueousSolutions team
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