Major Breakthrough in Puerto Rico Relief Efforts 15,000+ Families receive access to clean water.

UNITED SIKHSOctober 12, 2017

“A Sikh distributes the ripened life and love and labour unconditionally to man, bird, and beast. They must be God-like, feeding all, giving light to all, sustaining life, illuminating the breath of man with the inspiration of Naam (Divine Essence).” Professor Puran Singh

Utuado, Puerto Rico: Life for much of the island of Puerto Rico remains at a standstill without drinking water a full month after Hurricane Maria devastated its fragile infrastructure. The power outages have caused pumps at water treatment plants to fail across the island, leaving regions vulnerable to the threat of contamination and disease. Residents are forced to forgo their routine and ration what little water they have. Sacrifices have to be made. The sick and elderly are in dire need and people in remote villages and mountainous regions often resort to collecting water from any source whether it be broken pipes or springs to simply survive. A mother can’t bear to see the angst on the face of her child but feels helpless as dehydration and disease become prevalent. Without clean water, life withers away. Without clean water, life stops.

Faced with the severity of this circumstance, earlier this week, the UNITED SIKHS Engineering Team, working alongside the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority of Puerto Rico (AAA) and FEMA, made the incredible breakthrough of re-activating a water purification plant that services more than 15,000 families in around the Utuado and Lares regions. This amazing feat has brought clean water to over 60,000 people! This has allowed entire regions to feel a sense of normalcy has returned.

Kamaljeet Singh (center) and the AAA team worked tirelessly to bring generators back online.
This will have significant implications for all other relief efforts ongoing on the island.

“Pump stations 1 & 2 have been reactivated this week. We were only allowed to work for a few hours at a time every day,” explains Kamaljeet Singh, lead engineer for the UNITED SIKHS ground team. “Roads were damaged by the pouring rain and landslides yet the team made constant trips to the plant. In the time we had, we were able to repair the generator using batteries and supplies provided by UNITED SIKHS. Fuel lines were repaired in time even though the threat of landslides persisted at the site.”

DONATE: We cannot continue this work without your help. Please give today so we can help families in Puerto Rico. Help spread the word within your network. Even a small donation of $10 will help. If you would like to help, please visit our page: www.unitedsikhs.org/ShowYouCare to make a donation today. Donors in the US can also text PUERTORICO2017 TO 41444.

For six grueling days, under the leadership and counsel of Kamaljeet Singh, the engineering team travelled back and forth from the mountains of Utuado to fix generators and supply lines. In fact, after painstakingly troubleshooting the pumps, the time had come to test them out. Prior to the third attempt, Kamaljeet Singh performed Ardaas – supplication to the Almighty, and the pumps started to roar!

“This was not my effort. This only happened because I had a support team behind me. FEMA pointed me to the right direction and UNITED SIKHS took it from there to handle the operations in Utuado,” confessed Kamaljeet Singh, overcome with emotion. “I was able to leave everything and travel to the site because a local volunteer, Andrea, dropped everything to help with ongoing Langar efforts.”

Lisa, local volunteer, excitedly turns on the generator at the Utuado Water Plant, after three weeks of inactivity.
The river water will be purified and funneled to almost 60,000 people.

In a short period of time, Kamaljeet Singh and other selfless volunteers gave the gift of life and hope to thousands by their collective efforts. Mata Khivi Ji and Bhai Kanaiya Jis legacy lives on through them. We are reminded that through determination and collaboration, anything is possible and our mission ‘Recognize the Human Race as One’ can be realized. We are incredibly humbled to be a part of this effort and hope that others are inspired as well. Click here to hear our team’s effort.

Let’s keep the momentum going!

Together, we can multiply our individual efforts to alleviate the suffering in the world by acting with compassion and love towards each other.

#RecognizeTheHumanRaceAsOne #ThisIsUS #WeAreOne #ShowYouCare #WeCare #SikhsServeHumanity

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Issued by,
Gurvinder Singh
Sikh Aid Director, UNITED SIKHS
E: sikhaid@unitedsikhs.org

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