August 23, 2010

CLEAN WATER: A PRIMER FOR THE BUSY NON-EXPERT

An Overview of Clean Water

Clean Water is a critical need around the world and offers a valuable opportunity to powerfully impact lives, both physically and spiritually. Convenient access to clean water can free people from endless cycles of debilitating disease and free them to pursue new opportunities.

Clean water can also be an expression of God’s Kingdom, a means of sharing the love of Jesus, and a tool to open doors for outreach by the local church.

Buyer beware

Water can be a wonderful gift, BUT thoughtless investment in water can also do real harm. You need to carefully choose where you invest because every dollar you give is a vote!

Is your dollar perpetuating shoddy implementation and dependency, or are you giving to real development that empowers the world’s poor? Believe it or not, organizations listen to their donors... by asking the right questions and choosing wisely you can really help people rise up out of lives of poverty and disease as well as impact the water sector more broadly.

Popular Statistics

880 million people lack access to Clean Water 5,000 children die every day from water related

illness 5.5 billion adult productive days are lost every

year due to diarrheal diseases 40 billion hours are lost every year due to time

spent fetching water in sub-Saharan Africa An investment of $15 - $20 can provide Clean

Water for one person for life (or at least 20 years)

Statistics you don’t see so often More than 50,000 rural water points in Africa (36% of

the total) are non-functional. In Sierra Leone the figure is 65% (UNICEF)

A safe water source alone typically reduces water born disease by only about 25% or less (WHO)

Even a short period of breakdown can eliminate annual health benefits

The estimated cost of universal access to Clean Water is $42 billion – the estimated cost of repairing existing infrastructure is $350 billion. So the problem isn’t going to go away (WHO)

In some countries 40% or more of government water and sanitation budgets are not spent – there are local resources lying unused (Wateraid)

Water alone may not be the most cost-effective health investment

BUT, when combined with improved hygiene and sanitation clean water can be an important element of a more comprehensive

solutionSource: WASH Landscape Research for Strategic Planning, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, 2009. Compiled from UN Sources

Water is often not the most cost effective solution

Water alone is not the most effective solution

Some of the most effective solutions are also the cheapest

Water can be a good investmentWater can do harmOperations and Maintenance is essentialHealth impact requires sanitation and hygieneYou can leverage your dollar

5 Things you need to know about Clean Water

Water can be a good investment

No country has developed without addressing the issues of Clean Water and sanitation. A dollar invested in Clean Water can yield $3 to $5 in benefits and more than $20 in some places. That’s a 300% to 500% return on your investment or more!

Clean Water is a basic life need and offers a strategic opportunity to: Bring significant improvements in health to those without access to Clean Water by

reducing water related diseases such as diarrhea, schistosomiasis, Guinea worm, trachoma and river blindness. The health impact is greatly enhanced when water is combined with improved hygiene and sanitation as well as household water purification

Bring significant improvements in quality of life and productivity for millions of women and children. Countless women and children fetch water from great distances, people miss work due to illness, and many children miss school to fetch water or from water related illness

Serve as a tool to empower the poor by giving them the skills and confidence to identify problems and feasible solutions, identify and raise necessary resources, hold elected representatives accountable and lead and take ownership of the process of navigating their way out of poverty

Communicate the Love of Jesus and open the door for long term outreach by the local church

Thoughtless Investment in Clean Water Can do Harm

Giving a well often promotes dependency by encouraging a community to look to outsiders for help rather than solving their problems themselves. It often discourages local initiative

Giving a well can undermine local government efforts that require investment by a community. Community investment can promote a sense of ownership critical for well maintenance and repair

Installing a few wells without consulting with the local government may cause them to shift their investment elsewhere and lead to long term neglect of the people you were trying to help as well as their neighbors

Digging a well may promote corruption by enabling an official to pocket the money earmarked for that community

More convenient water access can increase household wastewater discharged into alleyways where it can fester and serve as a disease reservoir. A leaky pump can become a breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry malaria.

Installing a well for pastoral communities may cause them to stay longer and overgraze an area, undermining the long term carrying capacity of the land

Insufficient consultation on a well may lead to community conflict over water. The people you were trying to help might be prevented from accessing the water

A well installed in the courtyard of a new Christ follower may promote the perception that his profession of faith was purchased. Neighbors may also profess faith in hopes of being given a well.

A well installed on church property may be viewed by the local community as bait rather than a gift of love. A pastor may also be tempted to make access to the well conditional in ways that do not serve the cause of the Gospel.

Operations and Maintenance are Essential

More than one third of rural water wells in Africa are non-functional for lack of maintenance. Breakdown for even one week can undermine the health benefits for a year.

It is critical to invest in effective training of a Village Water Committee or develop a “circuit rider” team that regularly performs routine maintenance and is available for emergency repair. A community must raise cash to pay for upkeep. An effective organization is precise about maintenance schedules, and looks closely at repair costs, availability of spare parts and skilled artisans.

The best organizations can tell you how many of their wells are functioning and how many communities have cash on hand for repair.

Full health impact requires improved hygiene and sanitation

Open defecation is a major health hazard. Latrine use and handwashing with soap or ash are more effective in reducing diarrhea than a Clean Water point alone.

The most effective Clean Water interventions also invest heavily in changing hygiene and sanitation behavior.

Changing these behaviors requires much longer term effort and regular follow-up than simply installing a well and a pump.

You can leverage your dollar

Water + the Gospel: Water can be a powerful tool for sharing the love of Jesus, for introducing people to the Gospel message and for supporting the work of missionaries and the local church.

Water + Hygiene and Sanitation: Water alone typically results in only a 20% reduction in diarrhea. Clean Water combined with hand washing and latrine use is far more effective.

Water + Empowerment: Water can serve as a tool to empower the poor by giving them the skills and confidence to identify problems and feasible solutions, identify and raise necessary resources, hold elected representatives accountable and lead and take ownership of the process of navigating their way out of poverty

Water + Government Funds: There is often untapped opportunity to leverage community and local government funds. Communities that really want water can often raise substantial cash and frequently substantial government water funds go unutilized. Why should you pay the whole cost?

Often local funds go unused

There is often considerable potential to leverage local government funds as well as community cash contributions. Your dollar can go a lot further.

Ethi

opia

Ghana

(GW

CL)

Indi

a (R

ural

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i

Nepal

Niger

ia

Tanz

ania

Ugand

a

Zambi

a0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

38%

56%

9%

64% 65%56%

43%55%

33%

Selected National, State and Municipal Budget Utilization, Various Years

Source: Wateraid http://www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_documents/getting_to_boiling_point_1web.pdf

Not all giving opportunities are created equal:

Examples of outstanding workExamples of shoddy workWhat about cost per well?

Your Vote Matters!

Some organizations are doing outstanding work

Give a balanced perspective on their web site, acknowledging the challenges as well as the opportunities in the Clean Water arena

Invite scrutiny by identifying their local partners and listing coordinates of all their wells on their web site

Require significant investment by the local community, often including cash, as part of a long term relationship. They are prepared to walk away where commitment is low

Invest heavily to ensure long term operations, maintenance and repair

Combine Clean Water with hygiene and sanitation investment to maximize health impact

Use water as a means of building broader community capacity to solve problems and tap local and external resources

Coordinate with and leverage resources from local government as part of a regional strategy

Evaluate the long term impact of their work in order to improve

And Some of the Work is Shoddy Some give wells for free, fostering dependency and sometimes undermining local

government efforts to promote community ownership Some do not ensure that the community can take responsibility for operations and

maintenance. . In many circumstances, there is evidence that even community contribution of labor and local materials is not enough to give them the sense of ownership and responsibility necessary to maintain the system over time. As a result, many systems are in disrepair. Indeed, some blithely install wells near non-functional systems installed by others in the past

Some install hardware for which spare parts and repair expertise may not be easily available

Some overlook or ignore or give only token attention to the importance of hygiene and sanitation in realizing health benefits

Some fail to link water to other development efforts and opportunities such as micro-finance and small enterprise development

Some don’t take the time to coordinate with local government – their random scattering of wells doesn’t meaningfully contribute to a regional strategy and they lose the possibility of leveraging government funds which often remain unspent

Some organizations just count the number of wells and estimated beneficiaries without consideration of the long term effectiveness of their approaches

Some don’t know their work is sub-standard since they never go back to check

What about cost per well?

Average cost per well is not a meaningful way to compare Clean Water organizations because:  

The hardware and installation costs for providing clean water varies enormously from region to region and location to location, ranging from around $300 for a shallow handpump in some locations in India to more than $20,000 for a deep borehole in the Central African Republic where they may need to punch through granite.

Larger systems cost more but also serve more people In a race to drive down costs, it is too easy to skimp on the critical investment in

community capacity to own and operate a water system, to ignore the importance of changing hygiene and sanitation behavior, and to eliminate ongoing support and monitoring that are essential for lasting impact. 

In fact, an organization can adjust their average cost per well to any figure they want by choosing easy locations and/or skimping on important elements of sustainability and impact.

Rather than focusing on cost per well, ask the organization for a breakdown of what a donation for Clean Water pays for.

Questions to ask before you give

Things to look for on a web site

Organizations we recommend

Tools

Before you ask

Organizations in the Clean Water industry strive to be efficient with their resources and keep home office expenses to minimum. It takes time to respond to donor questions, and the answers to most of the questions below are often addressed on the organization’s web site, sometimes in the form of a “Frequently Asked Questions” section. So, please do your own homework and check the website before posing your questions.

Questions to ask before you give

Many organizations will not be able to answer the following questions, but asking these questions will communicate that the issues are important to you as a donor and that you are well informed. These questions empower you as a donor to influence the industry. If enough givers raise these issues, these questions will be given priority. In this way, you can influence the industry beyond just your donation.

How many (what percentage) of your wells/systems are still in operation 2 years (5 years) after completion? Can you send me information on how you measure this?

What is the average amount of cash your communities have on hand for repair and maintenance?

How do you measure change in hygiene and sanitation practice? How do you share the name of Jesus or involve the local church in

your work?

Other helpful questions

How do you identify the communities where you work and what do they have to contribute to be eligible? Look for higher levels of contribution, including cash.

How much time do you invest in organizing and training a village water committee? Can you send me some of your training materials or a summary of what topics are covered?

How are you addressing hygiene and sanitation in the communities you are assisting? Do you have any material on that that you could share with me?

Do you coordinate with the district government and do your systems fit into government water plans? Have you been able to leverage government resources?

Do you have a strategic plan for your organization? Do you have country and/or regional strategies for your implementation? Can you send me a copy?

Things to look for on a web siteWe believe an organization’s web site should seek to educate the donor

and include information that can assist in making an investment decision. The site should go beyond dramatic statistics and human interest stories to include as many of the following as possible:

Financial: Financial summary, expenses by country, cost-per-well estimate, what money is used for, IRS form 990, audited financials

Operations: Scale of operations (number of wells, or levels of spending, possibly broken down by country), information on implementing partners, board profile, staff profiles

Methodology: Description of how they work, technology used, how long it takes, process of selecting communities, training programs. Look for references to operations and maintenance as well as hygiene and sanitation

Evaluation and Strategy: Reference to measures of effectiveness (examples -- % of wells still functioning,

effectiveness of community organizations in operations and maintenance, hygiene and sanitation progress etc.)

Statement of goals apart from fundraising or number of wells/beneficiaries Track record statement related to goals or measures of effectiveness Specific well information (GPS coordinates, depth, yield, technology used, cost) Strategic plan

Openness about Challenges: e.g. water alone isn’t a complete solution, some communities haven’t been able to maintain and repair wells/pumps etc.

Further Resources

Go to www.givetowater.org for: A list of secular and Christian water

organizations Opportunity to give your feedback and

comment A summary of further resources Annotated bibliography