According to the United Nations, nearly one in eight people lack access to safe drinking water. The nonprofit organization, Water.org, is dedicated to changing those numbers by providing safe drinking water to the developing world. Co-founders Matt Damon and Gary White merged H2O Africa and WorldPartners in 2009 to create Water.org. Currently, Water.org is micro-financing watershed development projects in the poorest regions of Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Haiti, Bangladesh, Uganda, India, and Honduras. Believing solutions lie within the community, Water.org seeks out partner organizations in areas in need of water and sanitation development. Individuals and/or communities apply to the partner organization in their region and the partner organization conducts an evaluation of needs. Once a community is selected, Water.org, the partner organization, and the community design, construct, and maintain the watershed projects. The communities are involved in every aspect of the development including creating simple and local technology designed for the landscape. Projects are funded through Water.org’s, WaterCredit Initiative, the first loan credit program of its kind in the water and sanitation sectors. WaterCredit is made up of grants, loans, or a combination of both. As demonstrated in other sectors, the advantage to credit is every dollar repaid can be allocated again to another community in need. Receiving the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2009, the initiative emphasizes the importance of providing affordable credit to poor communities. Loan grantees develop their own timetable to repay the loan to establish credit that can later be used to receive loans from commercial lenders. This helps drives an economic market in the region. WaterCredit’s partnerships with local businesses, local and international water and sanitation NGOs, and micro-finance institutions create tailored solutions for the community.
Additionally, through the WaterCredit Initiative, communities own the project. Being financial stakeholders causes communities to properly manage the operation compared to communities that are simply granted the project. As part of the project, Water.org implements a hygiene education program to teach community members about the linkages between hygiene practices and water-related diseases. Currently, 3.5 million people die each year in the developing world from water-related diseases. Communities learn the importance of washing their hands, regular bathing, and using latrines to reduce illness and death.
Water.org also campaigns to fight for the empowerment of women and children. In rural communities, women and children spend hours every day walking and carrying nearly 40 pounds of water on their backs to their communities. As a result, women do not generate income and children miss attending school (443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related illness).
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Photo Courtesy of Water.org
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