Clean Drinking Water and Face Masks - Falk College

From a Syracuse University Alumni Association article By John Boccacino.

Proper handwashing has been one of the biggest causes championed by health care workers for avoiding the coronavirus. But what if, in your town or village, you don’t have access to clean water?

Two students pose next to a sari on a table — Nikita Chatterjee and Brianna Howard

It’s a problem Nikita Chatterjee ’20 and Brianna Howard ’20 know all too well from their work reducing waterborne illnesses in one of the world’s most densely-packed cities, Dharavi, India.

When they were juniors at Syracuse University, Chatterjee and Howard moved ahead with plans to create a unique water filtration system, designed to eliminate debris and other harmful bacteria from a water source. Thanks to guidance provided at the Blackstone LaunchPad, and after spending a summer with Invent@SU, the two took their concept from a well-intentioned idea into a working prototype.

They’ve won more than $26,000 in funding and grant money for their project, and they credit their time on campus with providing the essential support to launch their global health company.

They launched their global health company, PAANI Solutions, named after the Hindi word for water, in December of 2018. The goal? To equip the women of Dharavi — who often walk four miles roundtrip several times a day to access a water source — with clean, drinkable water, free of the numerous bacteria and contaminants that often plague the largest slum in Asia.

COVID-19 Brings About New Health Crisis

Photo by Priyanka Shah, co-founder of Streestyle India, a partner with PAANI.

When COVID-19 struck, Chatterjee and Howard decided to help by providing essential face masks for the residents of Dharavi. With its tightly-packed streets filled with houses containing multiple generations of families under one room, and with many citizens sharing common toilets, the conditions create a perfect breeding ground for the spread of the coronavirus.

“There is definitely a shortage of personal protective equipment around the world, and especially in India, which, with a population of 1.3 billion is in need of more than 38 million masks for its most vulnerable areas. We wanted to be a part of the solution, helping communities in need,” says Howard, a public health major at Falk College who recently was named the 2020 undergraduate recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Public Engagement and Scholarship.

Preparing for an Uncertain Future

Working with local companies already producing face masks, PAANI is donating enough materials to produce 1,500 masks for the citizens of Dharavi. Through a Go Fund Me initiative, Chatterjee and Howard hope to raise an extra $7,500 to cover the costs of producing tens of thousands of additional face masks. PAANI is also donating money to support the women in India who make these masks, as many of them earn approximately $2-$4 for their day’s work.

“There’s no way to practice safe social distancing, so how do we adapt to that situation to help out? Face masks are now required any time you leave the home, showing an even greater need for the production of masks. We want to help get these essential face masks out to the hospital networks and the residents so they are prepared for what is to come,” Howard says.

Recognizing that the need for face masks will remain high as long as the disease continues to spread, Chatterjee and Howard plan on providing masks for people in need in the tri-state area, which has some of the highest volume of COVID-19 cases in the country.

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