Water First International

The Daily Walk for Water

Water1st works in the rural Oromia region of Ethiopia, where approximately 90% of the people lack access to clean water, and only 7% have hygienic toilets. The burden of water collection is particularly high in Ethiopia. With no access to a safe water supply, women and girls collect water multiple times a day from distant sources, and carry it home in heavy containers weighing 40 pounds.

Our Ethiopia partner, Water Action, is working with rural communities to implement comprehensive water, sanitation, hygiene, and watershed protection programs.

Comprehensive and Integrated Systems

In order to have an impact on water supply, sanitation, health, natural resource protection, and the economy, our local partner develops a master plan for each watershed. Water1st is focused on implementing the plan for the Dawo Woreda, a county within the Oromia region. Projects are clustered geographically, resulting in compounded benefits. Communities can learn from one another, and a market emerges for supplies and spare parts.

Water Supply: Capped & Protected Springs, Drilled Wells, Piped Water

Projects use a capped and protected spring or a drilled well as the water source. Water is then pumped via miles of pipe to a storage tank and distributed by gravity to public water points. The water points are strategically located throughout the community to keep collection time under 15 minutes for all community members.

A water tap attendant opens each water point for a period of time in the morning and then again in the evening. Community members pay for the amount of water used, approximately 2 cents per 5 gallons.

Water systems are metered to assure quality control related to tap attendant fee collection and the swift identification of system leaks.

The Investment of Labor

Community members invest their labor in every stage of project construction. They are responsible for all unskilled labor, such as building access roads, excavating miles of pipeline trench by hand, carrying pipe, and building latrines.

Elected Water Boards

Households participating in the project elect a water management board, comprised of equal numbers of men and women. Each board is responsible for the ongoing operation of the water system, including collecting water fees and managing trained technicians who perform regular maintenance.

Latrines

Sanitation is an important part of the health equation. Individual households are trained to construct their own latrines. The project goal is for 80% of households to have latrines by the time the water project is operating. Latrine design uses only locally-available and non pre-constructed materials in an effort to promote replication.

Hygiene Education

Community members conduct peer-to-peer hygiene education to further improve public-health conditions. Community hygiene promoters are trained to educate households about health and sanitation and the importance of clean water and latrines. Hygiene messages include: using the well water for all domestic purposes, washing hands frequently, and digging solid waste disposal pits in every yard.

Watershed Management

Where needed, projects incorporate watershed management activities that promote groundwater recharge and prevent soil erosion.

In an increasingly urbanizing world, perhaps Water1st’s most significant discovery has been Dushtha Shasthya Kendra (DSK)—our smart, compassionate, and highly-motivated partner in Bangladesh. DSK has pioneered an extremely effective means of providing water, toilets, and hygiene education in the urban slum environment.

We began funding DSK in two slums areas in Dhaka in 2006. Since then, they have demonstrated the ability to scale up and spread out. With increased Water1st funding, DSK now implements hundreds of projects a year in Bangladesh’s three largest cities of Dhaka, Chittagong, and Khulna.

One of DSK’s brilliant moves has been incorporating micro-lending into its operations. Water systems and toilets are not given away. Users must repay the full construction cost to DSK over 1-2 years. Repayment rates have exceeded 96%. These repaid loans are then used to fund more projects. Currently, 49% of our annual budget for Bangladesh comes from repaid loans.

In 11 years, our partner in Bangladesh has completed 1,986 water projects with Water1st funding. Each project serves a small group of slum residents.

Water1st is proud to support COCEPRADIL, our outstanding local partner in Honduras, serving communities in Lempira, one of the poorest, most isolated regions of the country. COCEPRADIL is a cooperative composed of communities that have previously completed water and sanitation projects. The cooperative exists to assist communities with long-term system maintenance and to construct new systems for communities in need. The model is astonishingly effective. We believe the COCEPRADIL headquarters should be a learning center for development organizations around the world.

COCEPRADIL’s projects provide the highest level of service possible. Each household receives a water connection and a water-seal toilet. The communities invest an enormous amount of labor to complete the project. The investment always pays off. Households flourish and hygiene conditions improve dramatically when an ample supply of water is piped directly to the home. In a world full of uncertain outcomes, this is a sure bet.

Highlights:
- Receiving the first independent evidence-based evaluation from the Water for Life Rating System and scoring "Highly Recommended for Future Funding.”
-Mandating that all new projects incorporate household water meters.
-Establishing a loan program to help communities replace old infrastructure and add meters.
-Adapting their program to server larger rural town contexts.
-Expanding into new municipalities in northern Lempira.
-Collaboration with local government to provide back-up support to community Water Committees.

From 2005-2011, Water1st supported the implementation of 32 projects serving 13,650 people.  Water1st has provided grants to a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in West Bengal, India in order to support the implementation of projects that include provision of convenient, safe water, hygiene education, and sanitary toilets.

In Water First's India program, which serves subsistence fishing communities in rural West Bengal, beneficiaries pay 40 percent of the capital costs of their water supply and sanitation projects through a four-year revolving loan fund. 

In 2011, Water 1st decided not to fund the construction of new projects through our partner in the Sundarbans. However, our loan program continues and new water points and toilets are being constructed using revolving loan funds. We believe the existing projects are well-built and will be maintained in the future. We will continue to monitor the status of those existing projects and evaluate our options for the future. Our decision to end active funding of our India program was primarily based upon our conclusion that the India program was at capacity and was not likely to evolve further through our participation.

Water1st is fortunate to be in a position to extend our reach to Mozambique, where 80% of the population lacks access to water and toilets. Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 180th out of 188 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index.

After rigorously vetting potential partner organizations over the past two years, we have chosen to invest in Grupo de Saneamento de Bilibiza (GSB). GSB is a smart, compassionate, motivated, and resourceful organization working to help rural communities in the Quissanga District in northern Mozambique. Partner selection is paramount to our success. Not all implementing groups are equal. In addition to technical skills, GSB has the desire and ability to organize and mobilize people. GSB is also genuinely curious to know the actual outcomes of their work. When something doesn’t meet their expectations, they make an adjustment. This commitment to constant program improvement is a key characteristic we look for in our partner evaluation process.

Our partnership will provide GSB with sufficient financial support to develop a holistic water and sanitation approach tailored to their environment. Our goal is to realize success during this preliminary partnership, leading to establishing full partner status with GSB.

Poor sanitation conditions, lack of toilets, open defecation, and lack of water sources has resulted in unhygienic environments, fueling the spread of water and sanitation-related diseases, and contributing to high child and maternal mortality rates. Less than 1% of the Quissanga district population has access to piped water and 77% do not have sanitary toilets or latrines. Water sources range from poorly-sealed shallow wells to ponds and rivers, with women and girls fetching water more than 8 kilometers from their homes.

Approximately 90% of the Quissanga population practice subsistence agriculture. Markets for agricultural products are limited, making it difficult for families to generate income. In response to this challenge, GSB has formed farmers’ co-ops to increase productivity and shift cultivation to more marketable products. Even with assistance from GSB, farmers are still earning less than $1,000 per year.

In 2017, GSB expects to reduce the transmission of waterborne infectious diseases through the provision of water, sanitation, and hygiene-education services to the rural town of 19 de Outubro, population 1,600. This project will include piped water to households and the adoption of flush toilets, levels of service that are necessary to achieve the project’s goals. Alongside these interventions, GSB will embark on a public-health promotion campaign to encourage hygienic practices made possible by access to clean water and toilets.