Source: Circle of Blue, Aug 22, 2012
Water For People Strives To Reach Everyone Forever– Ned Breslin
Ned Breslin.
The global water crisis is immense. The standard approach to solve this crisis is to build water projects all over the world. Water For People did this, and we learned that isolated projects struggle to be sustainable and fail to provide a global solution.
We developed the EVERYONE FOREVER program, which is now concentrating on 30 districts in 10 countries. Representing our work in Southern Asia is India. And on the other side of the world, we are working in Honduras. Further south, Water for People is in Bolivia. And, in Central Africa we are tackling the water problem in Rwanda. But in all of the countries we work in, we are striving to accomplish a few key goals.
The first big goal is to make sure that every family, every school, and every clinic has access to improved water. We can no longer be satisfied with only reaching the most vocal, most accessible communities. Instead, Water For People is pushing to help EVERYONE, including the poorer, harder to reach areas in each district. An important part of the EVERYONE FOREVER program is co-financing, which means that Water For People isn’t solely responsible for funding. In fact, the local communities and district governments provide a huge percentage of the funds. Local financial contributions create a necessary commitment to success that allows for water to flow, for technical problems that emerge to be addressed, and for water systems to grow with the community, as it changes over time.
Another important goal within EVERYONE FOREVER has to do with ensuring that these water and sanitation programs are sustainable. Any infrastructure with moving parts is eventually going to break. Water For People trains local partners to be able to respond to these problems and fix them, and, in doing so, we enable the community members that we help to keep water flowing FOREVER. Beyond that, Water For People continues to monitor its programs for 10 years after they have been implemented. This is completely unique in the water and sanitation (WASH) sector. This combination of monitoring and partnership ensures that an initial investment in a community like El Limon, Guatemala, will eventually lead to complete aid independence. Now that’s something worth celebrating! In other words, the people in these districts will never need the help of another international water NGO again. Only then can our work in any district truly be considered a success. But, Water For People doesn’t stop there.
We are striving towards a greater goal and trying to look at the bigger picture. In the end, we want our work and our programs to be replicable. The goal is that success in the 30 districts will spill over in these four countries until the principles of EVERYONE FOREVER are adopted nationally.
If you would like to be a part of the EVERYONE FOREVER success story, the learn more about Water For People, donate, or sign the EVERYONE FOREVER commitment at www.waterforpeople.org.
