University of Sheffield project funds fresh water well in India

Life Water, sold in all commercial services and UNICUS retail outlets across the university campus and residences, is a life changing charity, providing clean drinking water to communities that desperately need it.

For every bottle of water sold, funds are raised towards the construction of new fresh water wells in India.

Commercial Services at the University have worked with Life Water to sell their bottled water for 6 years which has led to the University being assigned its very own Life Water drop4drop clean drinking water project.

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The construction of a new well in the M.Kothapalle community in Andhra Pradesh India will be completed in September 2016 and will provide 1070 people with a safe, sustainable and long lasting source of clean drinking water. The well will feature a plaque with the details ‘donated by Sheffield University through purchases of Life Water’ to explain who funded the well and how it arrived in the community.

More than one billion people around the world are unable to access safe, clean drinking water, and over 2.5 billion do not have adequate sanitation.

Gavin Brown, Head of Commercial Services for Accommodation and Commercial Services (ACS) and UNICUS, sought to bring a more socially responsible solution to the University and investigated sourcing of bottled water. He explains, “At the University there is a steady demand for bottled water, and we wanted to provide a solution that delivers a wider social benefit. Life Water enables us to make a responsible and positive contribution in an area where water is not easily accessed. So, when a University customer purchases one of these drinks, they will be helping someone less fortunate to have access to fresh water as well.”

The initiative is one of many environmental activities at ACS undertake, including the responsible recycling of plastic drinks bottles, where Staff and Students are actively encouraged to recycle, with all cafés and student accommodation having well-labelled recycling bins for plastic and tins as well as caddies for food waste recycling. The PET plastic drinks bottles are then processed by a company in Lincolnshire, so they can be recycled and made back into bottles for future use.