The Water Well Trust has completed the first of 19 water wells it expects to drill or rehabilitate in northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma to serve an estimated 145 individuals in this high-need, low-resource rural area.
In October 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded a $140,000 matching grant to the Water Well Trust through its Household Water Well Systems Grant program for a project to increase potable water availability to rural households in five northwest Arkansas counties—Franklin, Benton, Madison, Marion and Crawford—as well as Sequoyah County in Oklahoma.
The first well for this project was completed in January for a household in Chester, Ark. The homeowner, a disabled man with two children, had been pumping water from a pond for showers, dishes, laundry and toilets. His daughter contacted the Water Well Trust after reading about the first project completed in the area in 2012. The homeowner's situation was dire: "Sometimes we run out of drinking water and I don't have gas in my pickup to haul water, so we have to do without drinking water."
With the completion of the new water well, the homeowner now has full access to safe, clean drinking water. The second USDA project water well is expected to be completed this month near Rogers, Ark.
Source: Water Well Trust
