We empower the poorest rural communities in East Africa to provide their children clean water and healthy homes to develop to their potential. We are unique in not just building wells, but creating local savings and credit cooperatives that finance well maintenance and repairs to ensure sustainable water and provide a source of capital for households to invest in a brighter future. We are a lean, data-driven organization with a staff that is >95% Ugandan.

Since 2008, The Water Trust has helped more than 300,000 people gain and sustain access to water, sanitation, and hygiene. We continue to monitor more than 900 partner water points, testing water point functionality and water quality to ensure water is still flowing.

In a setting where just 55% of borehole wells are functional and just 30% have functional management, our partner communities achieve >93% functionality in both water functionality and management functionality. The secret is the community cooperative banks we form, which manage a reserve fund for well repairs. Households are happy to pay into the water point reserve fund because they also benefit from access to personal savings and credit, allowing them to invest in their children and their livelihoods.

The Water Trust

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