Safe water in Northeast Ghana

Help Expand Access to Safe Water Services in Northeast Ghana

Urgency
Do you realize that half the world’s population has no access to safe drinking water; meaning reliable water at their home! This is also the very hard reality in Northeast Ghana. For the people affected, it has very big consequences. Unsafe water consumption increases the risk of contracting water-borne diseases, and collecting water from rivers and streams reduces time for leisure, vocation, and education. Moreover, at least 35% of the hand pumps in Sub-Saharan Africa are known to be non-functional, and in some countries, that figure is as high as 50%. As a result, many previous investments in rural water supplies have not yielded sustainable results.

About Water4
Water4 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Oklahoma City (USA), founded in 2008.  Their expertise is leveraging charity to scale durable market-based water businesses that create more: safe water access, economic opportunity, and virtue and purpose across Africa. After 16 years in operation, Water4 has refined its model to professionalize safe water services by scaling professional, wholly owned, piped safe water businesses in Africa. Serving the role of Venture Builder, Water4 provides seed capital, financing, strategic development, technology, processes, quality assurance, and more to its multinational business, 4Ward Development.

4Ward Development is the business arm of Water4 that delivers market-based, economically contextualized, safe water solutions. This approach puts the solutions to local problems in the hands of local businesses and ensures sustaining safe water access for lasting impact. Safe water is delivered through the so-called NUMA plants. NUMA is the trademark for the technical installations that ensure water is supplied through a network of pipelines.

Vision/Mission
At Water4, we scale durable market-based water businesses with lasting impact for communities across Africa. Water4 is not only committed to provide access to safe water, but they are also creating jobs, capitalizing on economic opportunities, working to educate biblical principles and bringing a hopeful perspective. Water4 want to generate good and invite you to do the same so that every home and community has safe piped water. Always!

Approach
From its market based approach, Water4’s model works as follows: the initial investment to set up good infrastructure is financed by donations. All additional investments must be financed from the water business, i.e. the sale of water! In the vision of Water4, the availability of good drinking water is being considered as an ‘affordable service’, just like we are used to in the Western world. Water has to be paid for! In their belief, the ongoing business should adequately cover all operational costs, maintenance, and even replacement of water installations. In this way, therefore, the start-up investment in the form of a one-time donation, always keeps going. Water4 gets the “flywheel” of the water business going, then it must be self-sustaining!

The above is not wishful thinking. Water4 has built an impressive track record over the past 16 years, amply proving that this approach – in the right context – is indeed feasible. To date, with its more than 13,000 (!) water projects, Water4 has provided a total of 2,358,090 people with access to safe water, trained 1,002,222 people in sanitation (WaSH) and discipleship, and created 923 jobs.

Project
The main objective of the project is to help people in North-East of Ghana in their basic needs by providing a good and seamless water supply. We want to achieve that people no longer have to go out and manually draw water, or get contaminated water from pools, streams and lakes. Constant and immediate access to safe and clean water is essential for daily use and hygiene. That availability will instill a strong sense of security in parents and children!

Quantitatively, the project aims to provide safe water access to a total of 4.400 people through the installation of various water systems. It involves the construction of two central NUMA plants, 54 decentralized NUMA points and 3 water towers.

In addition, every safe water point becomes a kingdom outpost where 4Ward employees can show and share Jesus through relationships and the Water4 Multiply discipleship movement. Employees voluntarily use orality methods to engage customers, follow up, encourage them to start groups, connect those groups with other groups and leaders, and then provide ongoing training and accountability as a business to form and integrate into existing churches. In investing in Water4, your resources are multiplied in safe and Living Water outputs. To summarize, Water4 is much more than just realizing water solutions in Africa; its practical work provides a great entry point to help spread the Gospel!

Project Costs – How you can help!
Water4’s approach is strongly market-based, which means that donation money is only requested for the initial investment of the infrastructure, or the installation of the facilities and the laying of the necessary pipelines. This involves the following components:

• $54,460 to construct 2 NUMA Nexus Filtration Systems to provide the most safe, delicious, and reliable water
• $40,255 to build and install 54 NUMA Now Home and Business Connections so customers have safe water at their doorstep
• $20,285 for 3 Water Towers to allow us to store and provide pressurized water to customers at all times

The total cost of this project is $115,000. Converted per person, that means a one-time investment of only € 21. Furthermore, the project is expected to generate positive net income within three years. From that positive result, there will be room to further expand the pipeline network to another 300 households (about 1,500 people). Additional water storage tanks can also be installed, financed by revenue and without the need for additional grant resources!

Impact – Why your support matters
MissionInvest is impressed about Water4 and the solution they beautifully combined between business and missions. We’ve got great referrals about Water4 from partner organizations in our network. Furthermore, their trackrecord is impressive as well! Every day, more than 700,000 NUMA customers purchase “safe water” from them. Customers value safe water as something of great significance to their daily lives. Millions of people are still lacking safe drinking water. Therefore, we desperately need your support to bring life-saving and world-changing, safe drinking water to tens of thousands homes and communities!