Making it last

More ways to make solutions last

Making solutions last is critical to solving the world water and sanitation crisis. At Water For People we do this primarily through our dedication to: Integrity, Impact and Innovative Thinking. However, many other factors also improve the sustainability of our programs.

Regional Approach

Water For People develops regional concentrations in our program countries to better focus solutions and demonstrate success. Our Water For People teams research and select areas within a specified region where we are confident that our model can take hold and succeed. This careful selection creates a climate of energy, synergy and motivation that fuels future success for the communities within that area—success that is contagious. With solid examples of success, Water For People can convince others to take on the same model in other areas.

Field Partners

Water For People believes in the power and importance of working with viable, community-based, local organizations in our program areas. These groups bring a wealth of knowledge, resources and motivation to our work. “We Keep Good Company” isn’t just a value, it’s a mission that directs our efforts to research, select and build capacity within our team of field partners.

Local Focus

Why is it important to keep solutions local? Because that’s where the ability to make it last lives. The community that benefits from a new water or sanitation system is the most important component of the long-lasting maintenance and operation. And, in order to keep those benefits flowing, that same community has to invest in its future and work with the local government and local businesses to create a civil society that values water and sanitation as a means out of poverty.

Our Model

If you visit the developing world and look closely, you’ll see a disturbing image: women, girls, men and boys walking past broken water and sanitation solutions. In some cases, a new pump may be just around the corner or down the road. Yet, symbols of failed programs—failed hopes—confront villagers every day. And those symbols represent huge amounts of wasted money, time and effort. Two steps forward and one step back is no way to solve this crisis.

Our model works because it’s focused on the long-term rather than the ribbon cutting.

It is a holistic view that encompasses and accounts for how the solutions will work long into the future:

• Select a community and create motivation to succeed.
• Support the community as it works toward self-sufficiency.
• Bring in other organizations from the community and help them grow.
• Bring in local government partners, and convince them that it’s in their best interest to be a play a positive and supportive role.
• Engage the local private sector to be a part of the solution.
• Strengthen all the players and create a synergistic environment with a vision of, and an active focus on, long-lasting water and sanitation systems.

Water For People’s model isn’t hard to understand, but it is hard work. It takes being a coach, being locally based, monitoring work, checking in, convincing the key stakeholders to stay focused on the local outcomes and often seeding the solution with start-up capital.

It also takes knowing when to step out of the picture. True sustainable solutions are ones that are run by the local communities. When the long-term successes are visible and the community can manage their systems on their own, Water For People hands over the reins.