Get Involved
AbundantWater.org needs your help in developing a simple water filter to bring clean water to the world.
- CONTACT US to see how you can help through our VOLUNTEER FORM and
- Donate by clicking below and help us bring clean water to the world.
- Follow our cause by joining our mailing list by entering your email in the sidebar form ->
Why Get Involved
For as long as I can remember I have admired people who have endeavoured to make a difference and have wanted to do overseas ‘development work’ myself. In March 2007 I got a chance to do this when I travelled to Lao as part of the AusAID AYAD program. It was a thrill to learn a new language and work in a new culture.
Although I found the work rewarding it was also challenging and the difficulties of working in a developing country constantly amazed me. It was great to know our work was helping someone but as I became more knowledgeable of the new environment I became aware of the negatives within the ‘development work’ sector: the misunderstanding of the needs of the recipient communities, the tribalism between competing organisations, the waste and the bureaucracy and the short sightedness of many programs.
Consequently, I began to seek out old hands in development work, people who were still passionate about their work after 30 years in the field. And I constantly heard the same message: think small and long term, understand your target community and work towards what they want, not what you think they need. Fortunately, I soon had an opportunity to apply this approach in a small project of my own.
Friends and I formed a relationship with a remarkable Lao community and after many meetings developed a deep mutual respect. From this position of trust they confided how we could help their community. My friends and I formed a partnership with a local Lao NGO and approached the Australian Embassy for funds to build a small biogas methane digester to provide cooking gas for their hospital. Working side by side with the local community we finished our work on time and to budget.
This proved to be the most enjoyable and rewarding of experiences. I had seen how to work with local communities and succeed; I was hooked and wanted more. Working in Laos I became aware of the urgent need for clean drinking water in the rural villages. I recalled the research done at the ANU by Tony Flynn on clay pot water filters. Drawing on my recent experience with small-scale grass roots projects I approached local water NGO’s and received a very positive response towards this simple technology.
Although the benefits of encouraging local communities to make their own filters was obvious the NGO’s needed to see results from a field trial so they could be confident it could withstand the demanding conditions such filters would face in the rural villages. During these discussions I stumbled across another group who, quite independently, were also looking to apply Tony Flynn’s research to a village water filtering system. We teamed up and agreed to undertake a joint project. Thus, abundantwater.org was born.
I returned to Australia to seek support for this new project. Canberra Rotary Club offered seed funding and the project was underway. Talking to friends and strangers I discovered many immediately recognised the potential in abundantwater.org to not only provide drinking water in Laos and elsewhere but also to inspire people to become involved in a ‘good cause’. As a result we formed an online open source project structure that allows anyone who is interested to become involved.
This project has introduced me to so many people with good intentions and a desire to make a difference in our ‘global community’. Consequently, we have started making our information available on line to other organisations so they can apply a similar methodology if they want to their own water projects. I find all this work very rewarding and it has introduced me to many inspiring and interesting people. And, of course, it feels good to be trying to help someone else.
Sunny Forsyth
