Clean water for schoolkids in Bohol (Philippines)

After over five years of preparation, project development, and a pandemic, the Abundant Water team (www.abundantwater.org) is excited to commence our long-awaited pilot project on the beautiful island of Bohol (Philippines).

 

Many of Bohol’s 1.3 million residents do not have access to clean drinking water. The local water infrastructure was devastated by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in 2013 – and subsequent severe typhoons have made rebuilding efforts difficult. In December 2021, Super Typhoon Rai destroyed what little water infrastructure remained on Bohol Island.

 

Bohol residents spend a substantial part of their household income on bottled water. The cost is often prohibitive, and schools and health clinics do not have ready access to clean water because of the expense.

 

Abundant Water can help deliver clean water to Bohol residents through our established social business model. Working in remote rural areas, we train local potters and vendors to launch scalable micro-businesses as part of our social business model, ensuring their communities have a supply of clean water into the future. We focus on supporting and training local women as vendors – and delivering social and economic benefits to the community. Our program has been established in South East Asia for over 14 years – and benefited over 130,000 people.

 

Our scoping work in Bohol has been completed, and local partner organisations have been recruited. By raising $25,000, we will be able to implement a pilot project over the next 12 months to establish the distribution network of local women installing and servicing filter systems in school, clinics and family houses. This pilot program will include four schools and their associated communities of up to 1000 households - benefitting up to 6000 people.

 

AW's proven model indicates a successful pilot will gather support from larger institutional donors enabling the program to scale within five years to provide clean water to up to 30,000 people, saving $1.1 million from bottled water purchases and 42,000 extra school days attended. An enormous return for a small investment!

 

We need your help to fund our pilot program and deliver clean water to school children and their families. Your tax-deductible donation, whether large or small, will make a difference.

• $5 will provide an ongoing supply of clean water for each person in this program.

• $7000 will provide filters for a school and train two women from the school community to sell, install and service water filters in the community.

Photo source: Abegail Keenan via Unsplash