Water.org Working Toward Global Access to Safe Water

by Maireid Sullivan | July 19, 2009 at 01:41 am

188 views | 22 Recommendations | 5 comments

H20 Africa and WaterPartners Agree to Merge. The merged entity, Water.org, co-founded by actor Matt Damon and Gary White, will leverage nearly twenty years of innovation in the grassroots approach of both organizations to improve access to safe water and sanitation in the developing world.

In relation to water-saving techniques, Colin Austin invented "Wicking Beds" while he volunteered in Ethopia. With this method, vegetable growing requires very little watering, because the beds store water so that it cannot evaporate. Take a look at ours, which we built last month. http://www.maireid.com/wickingbeds.html

Below this article is a reply I received from water.org

Water.org Working Toward Global Access to Safe Water
H2O Africa and WaterPartners merge to deliver on safe water promise for those in need

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Matt Damon, H2O Africa co-founder, and Gary White, WaterPartners executive director and co-founder, announced that they have joined forces to co-found a new organization – Water.org – a non-profit focused on bringing access to safe water and sanitation to the developing world. Water.org will leverage grassroots awareness-building expertise and nearly two decades of demonstrated innovation and success in the sector to help the nearly 890 million people without safe water and the more than 2.5 billion people without safe sanitation.

Matt Damon, a long-time advocate for safe water issues, explains the importance of launching Water.org, "Every 15 seconds, a child in the developing world dies from water-related disease. After visiting project sites in Africa and Asia with Gary, I’ve seen the problem and the impact of safe water." Damon said, "As a clear leader in the sector at delivering innovative and sustainable solutions for those in need, WaterPartners was the natural choice with whom to work to truly affect lasting change."

Gary White sees a bright future for Water.org and the people it serves. "For more than 20 years I've been working to realize the vision of global access to safe water, and with the help of our donors, staff, partner organizations, and the H2OAfrica team, I'm confident we can accelerate our impact," said White, the Executive Director of the new organization. White, who recently received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, said Water.org will set the stage for even broader impact in the sector. "It will open the door to advocacy work, and bring the water issue to new heights in the public’s consciousness."

The merger will improve efficiencies, leverage expertise, and increase the overall social return on donations. Water.org will be an integrated advocacy and fundraising destination for safe water and sanitation issues. Through its partners worldwide, it will champion innovative business models, local partner development, project selection and oversight, program management, and post-development monitoring and evaluation. Later this year, the organization will launch an entirely new online experience that will bring unprecedented transparency and connectedness between donors and those in need.

About Water.org

Water.org is a non-profit organization whose founders have transformed hundreds of communities in Africa, South Asia and Latin America by providing access to safe water and sanitation. Founded by Matt Damon and Gary White, Water.org works with local partners to deliver innovative solutions for long-term success. Its microfinance-based WaterCredit Initiative is pioneering sustainable giving in the sector. Water.org’s life-saving work is made possible by the support of its donors, including the Open Square Foundation, PepsiCo Foundation, ONEXONE, the Skoll Foundation, and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. To learn more, visit www.water.org.

I received the following response to an enquiry I made via the website water.org/

Water.org does not design or engineer water and sanitation systems, nor do we endorse any particular technologies. Instead, we work through high-quality, in-country partner organizations in the developing world that follow our development model and have passed our rigorous certification process.

Water.org is working currently with partner organizations in Honduras, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Ghana, and Bangladesh. The projects that we support come from proposals generated by our current partner organizations.

All of our programs and funding go directly through our local partner organizations. Because of this, you would need to work directly with one of the following organizations in order for your community to receive consideration for funding:

KENYA
ADRA Kenya - http://www.adrakenya.org/
KWAHO - http://www.kwaho.org
Pamoja Trust - landrite@pamojatrust.org

INDIA
Bhartiya Samruddhi Investments and Consulting Services (BASIX) - http://www.basixindia.com/
Deena Seva Sangha (DSS) - dss1718@yahoo.com
Gramalaya - http://www.gramalaya.org
Mythri Sarva Seva Samithi (MSS) - http://www.mythri.org
Society for Integrated Development in Urban and Rural areas (SIDUR) - http://sidurhyd@yahoo.com

GHANA
Afram Plains Development Organization - apdo@africaonline.com.gh
Rural Aid - ruralaid@africaonline.com.gh

HONDURAS
   COCEPRADIL - cocepradil@yahoo.com
   Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Honduras - crshn@crs.hn

ETHIOPIA
   Relief Society of Tigray (REST) - http://www.rest-maret.org
   Water Action - wactaction@yahoo.com
   ORDA - http://www.ordainternational.org/

BANGLADESH
Dustha Shasthya Kendra (DSK) - http://www.dskbangladesh.org/index.html
Village Education Resource Center (VERC) - verc@bangla.net

Following are directories that may be helpful in locating other organizations in the water and sanitation sector that may be active in your area:

http://www.mwawater.com/mwadatabase/?TabId=60
http://www.globalwaterchallenge.org/partners/partners.php

EXPANDING TO A NEW COUNTRY

Water.org is extremely disciplined about expanding to new countries due to the expense required to seek out, certify and monitor new partner organizations. It is this level of rigor that has made our work so successful. It takes a critical mass of funding to reach the economies of scale needed to cost-effectively launch work in a new country. If we did only a few projects in a particular country, an unrealistic level of funds would need to be directed to overhead costs.

We keep a file of potential projects, partners, and contacts from the many requests we receive from all over the world. This information is useful when we begin the search for new partners, so thank you for getting in touch with us and informing us of your work.

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sara star

at 04:57 on July 19th, 2009

Everyone one should have access to clean water.

a211423

at 08:58 on July 19th, 2009

http://thewaterproject.org/clean-water-wells-in-africa.asp

Projects sponsoring digging wells in Africa can provide clean water in many areas even those considered remote and does not require an expensive delivery system. At least its a start for a developing area.

Maireid Sullivan

at 14:23 on July 19th, 2009

Thanks for sharing information.

"Wicking Beds" are also a great water saving solution for any dry area.

We built two beds last month:

http://www.maireid.com/wickingbeds.html

a211423

at 19:42 on July 20th, 2009

Maireid

Thank you for sharing the Wicking Beds. I have never heard of this method before, and the pictures were great. I live in California, and water is definitely an issue here. We are not rationed yet, but it's hard to say what will happen next year. The beams you used for the structure itself would be quite expensive here especially if they are redwood. What kind of wood did you use. Also, what was the cost approximately of building one of the beds you showed in the pictures?

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