Making Water Access More Convenient in Ghana

The United Nations has called for universal access to water that is accessible at any time, on-premises, and free from contaminants. 2 billion people do not have access to this kind of safely managed water. The communities most impacted by the global water crisis are in rural areas and living on less than $1/day.

At Safe Water Network, we are developing a new kind of infrastructure so that water never stops flowing and reaches every family. We are transforming the lives of entire communities in Ghana with convenient access to safely managed water at every home, school, health facility, and business.

In 2021, we piloted the Optimized Piped Connection water station, which accommodates around 10x more piped connections than our community standpipe stations. Safe water usage increased by 400% as families and small businesses were able to conveniently access safe water on-premises for drinking, cooking, washing, and bathing. The subsequent rise in revenue also strengthened the financial sustainability for each community water station.

Safe Water Network’s newly commissioned station in Nobewam, Ghana, is the first designed specifically as a “micro-utility” to provide safely managed water to an entire community. Through a network of 600 piped connections, nearly 100% of the local residents were reached with safe water accessible on-premises at their home, school, clinic, or business. The impact of convenient access to safe water was transformative for the community, particularly changing the lives of women, children, and disabled individuals.

At Safe Water Network, we make the water flow by optimizing systems that will bring community members more convenience, affordability, and safety. Over the next five years, twenty-five existing Safe Water Network stations will be retrofitted to accommodate piped connections and the micro-utility model demonstrated at Nobewam will be rolled out to ten new communities. Our vision in Ghana is to directly reach 1,000 communities, or 3 million people, with safely managed water eventually through our piped connections program.