Nonprofit Completes First Well in State Using USDA Grant
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. Now the nonprofit is getting to work and recently completed the first of 19 wells it plans to drill or rehab in northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. The effort is meant to increase potable water availability to rural households.
The first well for the project was finished in January in Chester, Ark. It brought full access to clean drinking water to a disabled homeowner and his two children. Before their new water well was installed, the family pumped water from a pond for showers, dishes, laundry and toilets. “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,” he said.