The latest on our work and those supporting it
Sierra Leone: Water everyday, and drilling wells in wells
Making sure there isn’t an end date on impact. Innovation comes from knowing and continually facing the truth of challenges. In Sierra Leone, we drill wells inside of wells to increase water yield. Imagine if your water company considered your family to have water simply because pipes were installed in your home years ago. Or, […]
The 10 Year Challenge
The Water Project has worked with communities who do not have access to reliable water for more than 10 years now. The “10 year challenge” meme provided the opportunity to reflect on all the things that have changed and on things we have accomplished since the start of The Water Project. However, the thing that […]
Did you know that 1 out of 3 people do not have access to a safe toilet?
Some 4.5 billion people today either do not have a toilet or use one that does not safely manage human waste. Of that total, there are 892 million people who still practice open defecation. This is a big problem. Diseases like cholera are spread through contact with human feces. In fact, the city of Boston […]
The Value of Relationship: Trust – Part 5 of 5
Part 5: Trust This is all a learning process, but we are not hiding our challenges. Sweeping any failure under the rug simply doesn’t make sense. That cuts out the legs of the shared table where we all sit. The goal is never installation. It is always reliability. Failure is only ever an interim step […]
The Value of Relationship – The Table: Part 4 of 5
Part 4: The Table At The Water Project, we like to imagine that achieving access to safe, reliable water is like a family meeting. Everyone involved has a seat at a large round table — an equal position for all around the meal. At the table sits The Water Project, our local teams, members of the community where […]
The Value of Relationship: Accountability – Part 3 of 5
Part 3: Fostering Accountability Traditionally, accountability and even corrective action for development projects come from the top. This can lead to the wrong solutions or an intervention based on faulty, imported assumptions. We see it all the time in the graveyards of good meaning, in failed water projects within our program areas. Each nonfunctional project […]
The Value of Relationship – Partnership: Part 2 of 5
Part 2 : Redefining Partnership Our partners are local experts, artisans, and development professionals organized as recognized in-country NGOs. Together we determine the most reliable water solution — whether it is a dam in southeastern Kenya, a borehole in Uganda, or rainwater tank for a school in western Kenya. When they leverage their deep knowledge of each […]
The Value of Relationship – A five part series
Part 1: Relationships, not wells, are key to safe water by Tom Murphy: Reporting Officer, The Water Project The Water Project does not build wells. We build relationships. Before dismissing what is seemingly a trite expression, allow me to explain what I mean because it is a crucial distinction that means the difference between contributing to a […]