The Thirst Project Aims to Bring Clean Water to 1 Million By 2015

In the summer of 2007, Seth Maxwell learned about the global water crisis through a friend who had just returned from a humanitarian service trip in Uganda. Over the following months, Maxwell researched about the issue further and felt compelled to do something about it. As a 19-year-old college student at that time, he wasn't sure what he could do, but he recruited seven of his closest college friends and the group decided to raise awareness about the problem. Armed with 1,000 bottles of water they had purchased, Maxwell and his friends headed to Hollywood Boulevard, where they gave the bottles away to get people to listen to them. That day, they were able to raise $1,700, which went into funding their first freshwater well rehabilitation project.

Maxwell and his friends thought that that first undertaking would also be their last. To their surprise, they started receiving requests to talk about the water crisis at schools and churches. Hence, The Thirst Project was formed. During their first month of speaking, the group raised over $12,000. Since then, The Thirst Project has raised more than $2.6 million, which have helped give over 100,000 people in developing nations access to clean water.

Today, Maxwell and company travel all around the United States to middle schools, high schools, and college campuses to shed light on the fact that nearly a billion people on the planet don't have access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation. According to The Thirst Project, most communities are simply too poor to drill down to the water source that already exists in aquifers 100 to 300 feet below the ground. A freshwater well that costs between $5,000 and $12,000 can bring clean water to 500 people, cut the disease rate by 80 percent, and reduce the child mortality rate by 99 percent. Through its various programs and events, The Thirst Project plans to make this a reality for one million people by the year 2015.