As Katie Alcott, Founder of FRANK Water, says, “In the villages where we build UV projects in India over 85% of hospital admissions are due to water related disease – more seriously over 2.2 million people still die every year from contaminated water. And people who choose to drink FRANK water at Greenbelt are part of the solution - because every penny of profit we make funds clean water projects.”

As a result, to date Greenbelters have helped to provide clean water for over 6,000 people in rural villages in South East India through FRANK Water.

FRANK have installed five filter water treatment facilities in villages where even the ground water is contaminated. Villages like Punditavelluru in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh have benefited from one of these facilities in recent months. In Punditavelluru around 80% of households live below the poverty line, with primary employment being through agricultural labours. The few wells that have been built by the government draw on contaminated water and are not maintained properly, which means that illnesses such as fever, joint pains & diarrhoea, which all related to the water conditions, are rife.

The FRANK Water Projects charity organise the set-up of water treatment centres and then make them fully sustainable. Locals will then be able to buy 15 litres of clean, safe drinking water for only 1 rupee (just over 1p). This money pays for the salary of operators trained from the village who manage the facility and maintain the equipment, it also helps pay for any replacement filters (which is crucial for sustainable projects) – the remainder is put into a Community pot – who then chose how it’s reinvested; often communities choose to build their own schools locally.