Our Solution to the Global Water Crisis

Why Water 1st?

People living in extreme poverty have many needs, but we believe water comes first. There is a powerful and direct link between human development and water, sanitation, and hygiene education projects.

• Safe water saves lives: A clean water supply is critical for survival and health.
• Safe water empowers women and girls: Instead of fetching water, girls can attend school and women can hold jobs.
• Safe water saves money: Water projects provide astounding economic benefits. For every dollar invested in a water and sanitation project, up to $11 is gained through labor savings, reductions in medical costs, and increased productivity.
• Safe water builds strong communities: Through our projects, communities also develop the skills, experience, and confidence needed to tackle other difficult community-level issues, such as building schools and roads.

No other single intervention can provide such substantial and multifaceted benefits for people living in extreme poverty.

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A Basic Human Right

Access to water is a basic human need. At Water 1st we also believe access to safe water and toilets is a fundamental human right.

It’s the sensible thing to do: Investments in water and sanitation projects have a high return. Economists have calculated that for every dollar invested in water and sanitation, ten dollars is gained on averted health care costs and increased economic productivity. It’s no wonder then that the readers of the respected British Medical Journal recently voted water and sanitation the greatest medical milestone ever, ranking higher than antibiotics, vaccines, anesthesia, and the discovery of DNA.

It’s the right thing to do: There are also rewards we can’t measure, but we know are enormously valued by the people we serve – like privacy and dignity and a life free from the drudgery of carrying water.

A Permanent Solution

Safe water, toilets, and public health education. That’s what we do. Calling Water 1st innovative may seem odd if you think of innovations as cool new products and technological breakthroughs. Our innovations, by contrast, have focused on people rather than a product. It makes our innovations hard to see, but it doesn’t make them any less powerful.

Our values are simple and not entirely new. What we do, we think better than any other nonprofit working in this field, is turn our values into practice.

• At Water 1st, 'Sustainable' is not a Buzzword
• Community commitment to long-term operation & maintenance
• Involving the women who benefit from our projects
• Solutions adapted to local conditions
• Backing up our claims of sustainability with real project monitoring

Making water supplies convenient

No matter how innovative and cheap the water filter or purification system, it will not carry the water for her. If we want to end poverty, we must reduce the amount of time spent by women and children collecting water.

In addition, because hand-washing is so critical to the control of diarrheal disease, our goal is to increase the amount of water used by each household. In other words, water supplies must be made more convenient for poor people so that they have time to collect safe water for all purposes.

• Learn more.

Maximizing health benefits with toilets and hygiene education

Studies have consistently shown that together, water, sanitation, and hygiene-promotion activities can maximize health benefits and have the greatest reduction in diarrheal illnesses. Therefore, the projects supported by Water 1st include a hygiene promotion component to encourage our beneficiaries to build a toilet and also help them learn how other activities, such as hand-washing, are crucial for controlling disease.

• Learn more about our integrated approach: water, sanitation, and hygiene education.
• See a film from Ethiopia featuring the work of the hygiene communicators from our in-country partner organization.