BY JANICE KWON ’27
Water is an essential part of people’s everyday lives. While most high school students spend their afternoons studying or on social media, high school members of Hands2Oasis spend their afternoons thinking about water: who has it, who doesn’t, and what they can do about it.
Hands2Oasis is an organization founded by Chloe W. ’27 and Allison Z. ’27 that aims to address various water issues, such as lead contamination on Long Island, while developing affordable water solutions for communities in conflict zones.
Long Island has a history of contaminated water, aging infrastructure, and pockets of elevated lead levels that often go undetected in public schools, libraries, and even homes. Contaminated water on Long Island contains carcinogens such as PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, which are harmful to humans when consumed.
“Water is a basic human right,” said Allison, “Whether you’re in Nassau County worrying about the quality of the water supply, or in any underserved community with no clean water, the urgency is the same.”
With Hands2Oasis, Chloe and Allison plan to conduct local community research on lead contamination patterns across the Island to release public information for residents to stay aware. Furthermore, the pair is currently developing low-cost, effective, portable water purification kits for communities in active conflict zones. With the interests of people in mind, they believe the need is too great to wait. Allison said, “We kept looking for someone else who was going to do something about this, and eventually we realized that we could be that someone.”
To learn more about Hands2Oasis or if you are interested in volunteering, reach out to hands2oasis@gmail.com or @hands2oasis on Instagram directly.
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