HelpLinks-listed non-profit organizations that provide safe drinking water to those in need are reputable, but we do not guarantee their integrity or accountability. Please investigate to your own satisfaction before contributing.
© 2011 Blue Planet Links
HelpLinks
Links to organizations helping people
get safe drinking water
Someone dies every 8 seconds from lack of water or from water-borne disease. There are many ways to change that. Find out more below:
Add Your Light
http://www.addyourlight.org
Effective BioSand water filters are sold at low cost to poor families in the Dominican Republic, and at higher cost to small businesses and others who can afford a little more. Your donation of $100 Cdn or $65 US can sponsor one filter for one family. Among supporters of this multifaceted program led by a Canadian physician are Rotary Clubs, C.I.D.A., the Peace Corps and individuals.
Aga Khan Development Network
http://www.akdn.org
In the Ismaili Muslim tradition of international service, the Aga Khan Foundation works to improve living conditions and development for the poor, regardless of origin or religion. Among their projects are a water and sanitation program in rural North Pakistan which won AKDN the 2005 Alcan Prize for Sustainability from the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum. Click on WATER in Search.
Asian Development Bank
http://www.adb.org/
ADB’s main goal is to reduce poverty in Asia and the Pacific regions by providing loans and technical assistance for a broad range of development activities. ADB’s water policy recognizes the need for increasingly careful water management and development in Asia and the Pacific regions to sustain equitable economic growth and reduce poverty, and advocates a participatory approach in meeting the challenges of water conservation and protection in the region.
CARE
http://www.care.org/
CARE works in developing nations to improve access to basic social services, including water and sanitation, and provides emergency water supplies in times of drought or upheaval.
FogQuest
Volunteer-run nonprofit works with communities in deserts of South America and Africa to find solutions to water problems using fog collection technology.
Foster Parents Plan
http://www.fosterparentsplan.ca
Child-focused international agency works with communities in developing countries to build wells and other projects to provide safe, nearby water sources and sanitation education and facilities. A donation of $75 buys clean water for a family, $300 clean water for a school clas, $1,000 water and sanitation for a community.
Global Water
http://www.globalwater.org
This NGO fights hunger, disease and poverty through its Global Outreach Water Supply Program. Working with local partners and other non-profit water providers, it drills wells and establishes water purification and storage capacity, and provides maintenance equipment and related health programs, using appropriate technology to assure permanent solutions for communities in South America and Africa. Also provides disaster relief.
Lifewater International, Lifewater Canada
http://www.lifewater.org
Christian group works to bring clean, safe drinking water to poor rural communities by helping train community members to drill wells and build hand pumps. Also works to educate development workers in simple water technology and update them on the latest developments. Sustainable disaster relief work continues in Haiti.
Mennonite Central Committee
http://www.mcc.org
Church organization's work world-wide reflects the biblical call to care for the hungry and thirsty. Click on INDEX & SEARCH, type "water" in search engine to learn about MCC's projects providing cisterns (for 100 families per year), low tech irrigation pumps and wells for schools. Families or communities generally provide labor and pay back materials costs (into a rotating fund) over two years.
One Drop
Cirque de Solei founder, Guy Laliberté set up One Drop to fight poverty by raising awareness and involvement in water issues through the Aqua exhibition, Teachers' Guide on this website, and large-scale projects to bring safe water suppplies to communities in developing countries.
Operation Eyesight
http://www.operationeyesight.ca
Focuses on treating blindness in developing nations, but is also collaborating with organizations such as Rotary International to help eliminate the causes. "In a village in Zambia, the incidence of trachoma has dropped from 90% two years ago to 3% today? What changed? A new well with clean water. Villagers learned to wash their hands and faces to combat trachoma."
Project Seres
http://projectseres.org/
For most communities in developing countries, reliable access to safe drinking water is a daily concern and one which will only worsen in the face of climate change . Seres works to help communities in Central America overcome these challenges. Seres brings together people, ideas and resources to find socially just and environmentally sustainable solutions - whether through simple household water filters, low-cost solar hot water, agricultural water-conservation techniques or information about local climatic changes - "helping create resilient, thriving communities that are engaged, empowered and aware."
Safe Water System
http://www.cdc.gov/safewater/
SWS sells simple disinfection and storage system for people in 19 developing countries whose wells, vendor sources, surface water or piped water is contaminated. Used by non-profit organizations such as CARE, chiefly for short-term solutions. Web site provides interesting reading about water improvement and long-term sustainability through behaviour change.
The Water Team
http://thewaterteam.ca/
Small group raises funds for selected projects to build wells in communities in Liberia, Nigeria and Haiti that don't have clean water. Become part of The Water Team by contributing $25 or more. 100% of donations go directly to the projects. Canadian tax deductible receipts issued.
UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org/wes/
United Nations Children's Fund site carries information and stories from children in the world today, as well as UNICEF's contributions to their welfare through the Water, Environment and Sanitation Programme.
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
http://www.unicef.org/wes/
UNICEF works to help children gain access to safe drinking water all over the world, both emergency and long-term. Since 1990, the United Nations agency has given 816 million people worldwide the gift of fresh water. A $1 donation can provide 20 litres of clean drinking water; $200 "provides a handpump to supply an entire village with clean, safe water"; $1,000 buys a share in a borehole.
Water for Children Africa
http://waterforchildrenafrica.org/
Teams in U.S. cities partner with teams from African water agencies and local water committees to complete safe water projects in rural villages. A secondary objective is to promote cultural bridges between American and African youth.
Water for People
http://www.waterforpeople.org/
North American water professionals, NGOs and individuals sponsor projects to provide safe drinking water as a catalyst for greater community development in Third World. WFP coaches and facilitates, local partners implement "simple, yet life-saving" means such as hand-pumps, school hand-washing stations, educational programs.
Water Partners International
http://water.org/
Since 1990, the group has provided loans in developing countries to 54 communities who could - over time -afford to pay for their own water systems, but who had no access to credit. WPI donates 10 - 50% of the capital and maintenance costs, and lends the balance. Loan paybacks are used to fund new projects. Sponsors include individuals, foundations, and corporations such as bottled water company, Suntory.
Water Quality and Health Council
http://waterandhealth.org/
Aong with groups such as the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the council is part of an international partnership working to bring home water treatment products to communities not served by municipal supplies or safe wells - treatments accompanied by intense social marketing to ensure their safe and continued use. Spnsored by the Chlorine Chemistry Council, so there is plenty of information on this web site concerning disinfecting procedures, usually favoring chlorine bleach (sodium chlorite), long considered the basic "water cleaner".
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Challenges: In developing countries, villagers often must spend hours each day walking to and from the nearest water source. In areas where drought and flood cycle back and forth, new means of collecting and keeping water safe are needed. In many places, the problem is a single, shared source of water used for bathing, boats, urinating, laundry and cooking.
Solutions: Sometimes it's traditional low-tech: drilling a well, supplying cisterns. Sometimes it's new technology: wind-powered pumps, gathering condensation from fog. The successful projects are not where outsiders simply supply funding and equipment, but where receiving communities literally buy into the process from concept through maintenance.