We welcome gifts of stock and securities, can help process any matching gifts, and would be honored to discuss Planned Giving with you.
Discover more about
Planned Giving
Please contact our office by clicking below:
The Water Project
PO Box 3353
Concord, NH 03302-3353
1.603.369.3858
For a rainwater collection system, we build gutters around a building with good, clean roofing to channel rain where we want it. From there, the water falls through a filtered inlet pipe into a high-capacity storage tank, the size of which is based on population and average rainfall patterns. In the tank, water can be stored for months, where it is easily treated and accessed. Learn more here!
Sand dams are huge, impressive structures built into the riverbeds of seasonal rivers (rivers that disappear every year during dry seasons). Instead of holding back a reservoir of water like a traditional dam would, sand dams accumulate a reservoir of silt and sand. Once the rain comes, the sand will capture 1-3% of the river’s flow, allowing most of the water to pass over. Then, we construct shallow wells on the riverbank to provide water even when the river has dried up, thanks to new groundwater reserves. Learn more here!
Springs are water sources that come from deep underground, where the water is filtered through natural layers until it is clean enough to drink. Once the water pushes through the surface of the Earth, however, outside elements like waste and runoff can contaminate the water quickly. We protect spring sources from contamination with a simple waterproof cement structure surrounding layers of clay, stone, and soil. This construction channels the spring’s water through a discharge pipe, making water collection easier, faster, and cleaner. Each spring protection also includes a chlorine dispenser at the waterpoint so community members can be assured that the water they are drinking is entirely safe. Learn more here!
For many communities, water is just the beginning. Living without water deprioritizes things that deplete water rations, like bathing, cleaning, and even handwashing. Also, in some cases, community members who couldn’t afford to go to school never learned topics usually covered in health classes. A steady water supply on its own won’t solve these issues, which is why we train the people in every community, school, and health center we provide with a water project.
Although we tailor the subjects we cover in each training to each region and community, there are some staples we always touch on: water handling and storage; personal and environmental hygiene; disease transmission; how to form and maintain a water user committee; and the operation/maintenance of the community’s new water project.
With each training, our goal is to empower communities to take back their personal health so growth and development can begin.
Abundant water is often right under our feet! Beneath the Earth’s surface, rivers called aquifers flow through layers of sediment and rock, providing a constant supply of safe water. For borehole wells, we drill deep into the earth, allowing us to access this water which is naturally filtered and protected from sources of contamination at the surface level. First, we decide where to drill by surveying the area and determining where aquifers are likely to sit. To reach the underground water, our drill rigs plunge through meters (sometimes even hundreds of meters!) of soil, silt, rock, and more. Once the drill finds water, we build a well platform and attach a hand pump. If all goes as planned, the community is left with a safe, closed water source providing around five gallons of water per minute! Learn more here!
We'll send you updates about the specific project you support. Pictures, maps, and stories from these communities will help you understand your impact.
Over time, we'll also provide you access to our monitoring data, so you'll know that water is still flowing, years after your gift.
100% Accountability. 100% Transparency.
We welcome gifts of stock and securities, can help process any matching gifts, and would be honored to discuss Planned Giving with you.
Discover more about
Planned Giving
Please contact our office by clicking below:
The Water Project
PO Box 3353
Concord, NH 03302-3353
1.603.369.3858
Hundreds of communities are in need of
immediate water project funding.
See How to Help:
Every gift funds a specific water project. You'll receive a full report with pictures, maps, stories and more from the community where your gift is used.
Every water project requires an entire community to do their part.
Donate your share and bring clean water to a community today.
Or, Sponsor a Water Project starting at $5,500
Provide the majority or total funding for a water project.
You'll know your gift made clean water possible for a community in need.
Or, Invest in a Regional Water Program starting at $35,000
Investments over $35,000 enable large scale water projects with far reaching impact.
The impact of your investment at this scale will extend beyond safe water and sanitation to include climate change mitigation, sustainable agriculture, re-forestation and more.
Your giving enables long-lasting, transformational water projects that serve thousands and allow landscapes to flourish once again.
Please contact us to discuss the pressing need for investment at this scale.
The Water Project has experience helping communities drill boreholes, dig wells, construct small sub-surface dams, catch rain, protect fresh-water springs, filter surface water, and maintain proper sanitation and hygiene practices.
We have learned each community we serve is different. From basic geology, to climate and culture, many factors determine the most sustainable project type to provide access to clean and safe water.
With water right on school property, students won’t miss class to quench their thirst, clean their classrooms, or supply school kitchens with water. With water at home, kids don’t waste homework time walking long distances in search of water for their households.
Water projects close to home rescue people from drinking whatever dirty water they can find. More water also means less rationing, so it’s easier to stay hydrated, wash hands, and clean homes, preventing future illnesses.
In our service areas, almost everyone has a farm or garden. To them, a lack of water means a lack of food. Improved crop irrigation equates to healthier and more plentiful crops.
Sourcing water when it’s scarce day after day saps everyone’s time and energy. With water at their fingertips, people spend more time investing in their households and livelihoods.
For each project you support, you'll receive an in-depth project report detailing the technology used, the location of the effort, the number of people it serves, and photographs of the process and completed water project.
If your project's total expenses are less than your gift, we'll show you any additional project(s) you've supported as well! For larger gifts, there may instances in which you'll be the sole sponsor on multiple projects.
We work hard to make sure that a community's needs are always considered first. Our partners in the field help ensure that happens and we work with them to make the best possible decisions.
We've heard too many stories of a "default" technology, like a well, being installed because of a donor's preference, only to see that same project rejected or abandoned by a community who were never involved in the process. We're here to lend a hand, not lead the way.
We hope you'll join us in working to put others' needs first.
The process of sponsoring a water project in Africa is simple.
Once you have raised the money and/or made a donation to The Water Project, Inc., we will assign the gifts to the next available project site on our ever-growing list.
We work very hard to keep our implementers busy, and try to ensure they always have a back-log of work. That simply means that your project will be constructed about 8-12 months after your donation.
We won't send your donation to the field until just before it's ready to begin construction - keeping everything safe, secure...and accountable.
A water project costs more than just the hardware.
To ensure each project is done right and lasts for many years, there are three essential phases to every project including:
The majority of your donation goes to our field implementers in the construction phase. They use it to pay for supplies, well pumps, concrete, drill bits, wear and tear on the rigs, fuel, and wages for the drill crews.
When you sponsor an entire project, you'll be an integral part of the effort from the very beginning to clean water flowing and throughout its lifetime! We'll show you how all along the way.
Currently, we're working to fund new wells, well rehabilitations, rain water catchments and spring protection schemes at schools, medical clinics, and churches and community centers in Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. Individual sites are each open to the public and can serve large groups of people.
Our teams and partners prepare each community for their new water water project. They ensure the community is committed to the project, and in most cases will require some form of investment of time and/or money on their part. This is a critical step to ensure that a water project is sustainable so that your investment has the longest possible effect.
We're committed to providing a reasonable estimate of usage. It doesn't help anyone to overstate the true impact of a water project.
Most of our recent projects actually serve around 500 people, which we consider the upper end of a reasonable limit for any hand-pumped well. Spring catchments serve around 200 or so.
Still, the number of people who use a water project will vary by location. If you've seen claims of wells serving thousands, ask questions. It's important to realize that simply because a community has a population of 1,000 people, it does not mean a single project can serve them all.
An overused well, for example, won't last very long.
Managing a water project over time is just as important as how many people it can serve. To make sure the projects we fund last as long as possible, we go back and check to find out what's working and what's not. We work hard to do the greatest good with your gifts.
Properly maintained, a pump can provide clean, safe drinking water for upwards of ten years or so before needing a complete overhaul or replacement. Properly maintained, other types of projects can last even longer.
Yes, of course! Our implementation teams are great at sending pictures and updates back to us as they work. We'll pass those on to you through our Project Reports - listing you and your team as the sponsors (you can choose to remain anonymous too).
You'll be able to track your specific project from its beginning, through construction and for many years to come.
Proving water projects and wells is hard work, but we believe it's essential to building trust through transparency.
We ask our drillers to send pictures of the actual drilling process when possible. In many cases we're provided with before and after photos.
In addition to pictures, we insist that every well be documented with Govt. drilling permits and GPS coordinates. We have folks on our team visit random wells, using these coordinates, to keep everyone honest.
Finally, we ask for itemized expense reports and copies of deposit/withdrawal forms from the banks to which we wire funds for projects. We trust our teams, but also try to remove any opportunity for others to question their integrity.
At this time, we are not able to ensure either safe travel or participation by volunteers at water projects in the field.
Well drilling is specialized work carried out by trained professionals and it is often quite dangerous. Our teams, made up of local drilling techs, don't have the ability to manage visits while they work.
The locations in which they work are often very remote and not frequented by foreigners.