At charity: water, we know that building a water project is the easy part. Keeping clean water flowing over time, however, is a complex business that requires money, training and innovative thinking. It's something we've always been committed to.
In some cases, up to 30% of the cost of a charity: water project goes into training and educating the community about how to take care of the well after we're gone. At first, our |
field partners start with ownership. We believe if the community feels a strong sense of ownership, they'll see their well as a critical asset to everyone and take good care of it collectively. Another important piece is the formation of a Water Committee. A 6-8 person team is selected from the village (often it's at least half women) and trained to make minor repairs. Often, our partners will leave spare parts for the village in case the well breaks -- because sooner or later, something always breaks. If the Water Committee is in place and active, that will keep water flowing most of the time. But sometimes a problem arises that's too big for even the best Water Committee members to tackle, and if solutions are not in place, communities could wait months for repairs while they go back to drinking dirty water.
Last year in India, we tried an entirely new approach: investing in entrepreneurs from the ground up, helping them grow their small businesses to repair broken wells. This video demonstrates a story of one mechanic who's taken full advantage of our help.
See the complete and original blog post on charity:water's website:
http://www.charitywater.org/mailings/2012_india_mechanics/
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