Students set out to help water-starved residents

These teenagers supply water to impoverished areas twice a month

KARACHI: Students of various colleges have joined hands to help citizens of the city suffering from water shortage. On Thursday, this group of young people distributed 8,000 gallons of water to residents of settlements in Gulshan-e-Maymar.

For the past four years, this group of student volunteers under the name of 'Rise Up For Salvation' has been distributing water to the water-scarce areas of Karachi. The group's founder, Alishba Arif, a private A Level's student, told The Express Tribune, that "We provide water to residents of impoverished areas who cannot afford to pay for water tankers." The group aims to dig wells and install pumps to extract underground water to address the issue of water scarcity in underprivileged areas. It currently distributes water twice a month to disadvantaged areas in the city.  The water distribution campaign was endorsed three months ago by American NGO Global Youth Connect.

The youth-led initiative buys tankers and distributes them among the needy people in low-income areas. The volunteers-mostly young students- feel that citizens need to play their role by coming forward for practical implementation of controlling the water shortage issue in the city.

Talking to the Express Tribune, the locals shared that they had been previously deprived of land, electricity and now water too. They appealed to the government to resolve the issues and give them access to clean water free of cost.

The group of volunteers also distributed food items to little children.