Working Waters Fall 2025

Working Waters Club is a student advocacy and research group that focuses on water and health related challenges of underserved communities globally. Our organization includes laboratory and field research used to engage communities; raising awareness and educating on water, sanitation and hygiene for people who may not have proper access, quality, or quantity for such. Working Waters primarily focuses its research in the Tshibvumo and Tswinga communities based in the Bantustan territory of northern South Africa and collaborates with student researchers from the University of Venda to address water issues by emphasizing the role of local municipalities to improve related infrastructure. 

We are hoping to expand our club to work with local communities in neighboring states and Allegheny County. We hope to work with local groups to focus on education and community outreach in our area.

What are we fundraising for?

We hope to visit the Soutpansberg Mountains in the Limpopo Region of South Africa. We work closely with the University of Venda in South Africa. Residents in the area have reported a salty taste in their drinking water. We as student researchers would like to visit the region to perform hydrological research. We would like to perform Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), among other methods, to determine the subsurface water quality. We would also like to perform humanitarian work to see how the high salinity in this water is affecting the local population.

Working Waters allows students at Duquesne to be involved in cross-cultural research, gain global knowledge, and cultivate their skills in problem-solving from diversified perspectives and teachings of other students involved in environmental and health sciences. As students at Duquesne who are a part of Working Waters sustain the University’s mission of educational and professional excellence, they also sustain its mission of service. Students work to help communities in need of comprehensive solutions for water infrastructure and improved sanitation and hygiene while gaining opportunities to build academic partnerships, and participate in scientific communications to share knowledge and expand our research’s influence. We teach students across various disciplines to work with our department faculty in the School of Nursing and the School of Science and Engineering. We provide a space for anyone interested in humanitarian work and global water issues to join our club.

In 2023, we sent four students and two faculty members to South Africa to perform research in the far North of the country. After acquiring data from the site, we were able to analyze the data using research techniques from students at Duquesne and the University of Venda. We have always stressed the importance of cross-cultural research and we believe that when we perform research across disciplines, we all thrive.

Stay connected! 

Instagram: @workingwatersduq

              Campus Link: Working Waters

              Email: FortschT@duq.edu (President)

                             KahlerD@duq.edu (Faculty Mentor)

                             Weidemany@duq.edu (Faculty Mentor)

Future Events: 

              Working Watercolors: Thursday, November 6 9:00 PM, Nitespot

              Working Water Bottles: Thursday, December 4 9:00 PM, Nitespot