A local group, Kansas City-based Water.org, has helped 60 million people around the world gain access to safe water or sanitation.
“This remarkable achievement is marked by our team and partners’ unwavering commitment to the people we serve,” said Gary White, the organization’s cofounder and CEO. “The scalability of our financial solutions has redefined how the global community can make safe water and sanitation universally available. Having reached more than half our impact in the last five years alone, we are eager and excited to see what we can achieve in the next five years.”
The global financing gap for water and sanitation is substantial, estimated at a minimum of $85.6 billion annually. To help close this gap, Water.org uses donor finance to attract private investment. The organization’s market-driven and adaptable solutions address the challenges faced by families across 11 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The organization’s work enables financial institutions and other partners to extend financing to families, businesses and service providers, resulting in more efficient, scalable solutions and using financing as a tool to facilitate access to safe water and sanitation.
“Lack of affordable financing is one of the critical barriers to safe water and sanitation access,” said Vedika Bhandarkar, COO of Water.org. “People living in poverty often spend a significant amount of their time and income sourcing water, compromising their quality of life. Small loans empower families to invest in sustainable water and sanitation solutions that enable them to break free from the daily burden of securing these essential resources.”
Water.org continues to generate impact among the people and families it serves by partnering with local institutions, expanding partnerships to accelerate access and strengthening the environment for water and sanitation solutions at a systems level. Having impacted 60 million lives, Water.org is now poised to leverage the power and scale of its solutions to reach 200 million people with access to safe water and sanitation. In doing so, the organization will continue to drive change in gender equity, climate resiliency, health and education.
More information is available at www.water.org.
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice