By Paulo Fugen

It’s hard to argue with the results of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  The campaign has raised more than a $100 million in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis research and spread awareness of the debilitating disease, a motor-neuron illness that progressively weakens the muscles until death.

Huge resources were invested in an important cause. But Mubashar Rizvi, a mechanical engineering major at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMU-Q), saw huge amounts of water wasted in the effort.

“I come from Pakistan,” said Rizvi,  “I know a lot of people there don’t have clean water… they’re dying because of it.”

Last week, Rizvi started the “Give Water, Save Lives” campaign with Taimur Rizwan, a computer science major at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), who found information on Water.org’s website. Water.org, a non-profit organization aimed at providing water to impoverished regions in the world, offer support to people who want to start their own fundraiser campaign, and the pair saw their opportunity.

“We decided to do something rather than complain,” Rizwan said.

Rizwan said the goal of the campaign is to raise $1000, which is the equivalent of QR3650, within 90 days. According to him, the pair will contribute a quarter of the money (QR900) themselves. The rest of the money would come from donations around the EC community.

The two of them plan to donate QR5 from their own wallets for each day of the campaign. So far, they’ve managed to collect more than QR300 from members of the EC community, as well as QR 100 out of their own pockets. They’ve set up donation boxes across campus, and have even sold cups of lemonade around EC, to inform more people about their cause.

“Someone came the other day and gave QR100, for which we were very thankful,” said Rizwan. “People have given me QR 4, QR3, QR1, but then I am glad because every drop makes an ocean.”

So far, they have marketed the “Give Water, Save Lives” campaign” on a small scale. According to Rizwan, the pair hasn’t started a Facebook page for the campaign yet, because they want to reach a lot of people on a personal level. They have, however, created a short video, which they shared on their own Facebook accounts, as well as Rizvi’s own Instagram account, which features Rizwan drinking a bottle of seemingly dirty water.

“We wanted to show what dirty water looked like, but we didn’t even want to waste water [on that],” said Rizvi. “So we mixed it with chocolate powder.”

The duo plan to expand their campaign, making appearances at campus events such as Ya Hala and the annual EC Futsal tournament.  

But while the campaign was born out as a result of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the pair maintains that their campaign was never meant to be a response to it.   Rizwan acknowledged that the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was a huge success, but they also wanted to encourage people to donate to both the “Give Water, Save Lives” campaign and the ALS Association.

One of the participants in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Aaleeya Spence, student affairs coordinator at Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q), felt guilty about wasting water by taking part in the challenge. She matched her ALS donation to Charity: Water, another non-profit organization that works to provide clean water to people in developing nations.

Spence understands the impact of having clean water, especially in Qatar’s harsh desert climate. “Talking about it won’t help [those who need it],” said Spence.

However, she admired the success of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and said that those who participated shouldn’t feel guilty for contributing to an important cause.

 “I am not trying to belittle the suffering of ALS victims or the cause,” said Rizvi, “One of my close friend’s father is suffering from ALS himself, but a lot of people who are doing the challenge, they were wasting a lot of water.”

But Rizvi also said that he saw some challenge participants take steps to reduce the waste. He said that he watched an HBKU employee’s ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video where the employee chose to drink ice water instead of throwing it on himself.

However, he said that there was still a lack of money being put into the cause of giving clean water in people who live in developing nations.

“The slightly frustrating part of doing this campaign is that isn’t as trendy [as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge],” said Rizvi, “So it’s hard to get people on board.”