Water and the Developing World

This prototype project, based in three villages in South India, tests a new model for bringing fresh water and sanitation to the more than a billion people who do not have it.

Current Events:

Read more about the first pilot project in Andhra Pradesh, Southern India

Contact:

Jonathan Carr-West
Email: jonathan.carr-west@rsa.org.uk
Tel: 020 7451 6930

Detailed Information:

In 2000 the World Health Organisation estimated that 1.1 billion people lacked access to clean drinking water and 2.4 billion people lacked access to proper sanitation. Because of this, 3.4 million people, mostly children, die annually from water-related diseases.

The project starts from two propositions, firstly that aid is inadequate, both in scale and efficiency, to make serious progress on development. Resource needs for effective development are better met by communities, markets and the private sector. Secondly, that improving water and sanitation is the quickest way of breaking the overall poverty cycle.

The project seeks to validate these propositions and aims to develop a sustainable investment model in water and sanitation provision. We believe that improving water and sanitation is the quickest way of breaking the overall poverty cycle.

Future Vision:

The RSA hope to work alongside corporate partners on a number of small-scale water and sanitation projects. We believe that improving water and sanitation is a key driver of economic development and offers wider benefits to the local community, government and the corporate sector. By getting involved, corporate partners will themselves benefit from valuable marketing opportunites and the chance to enhance their reputations across the globe by directly contributing to the long term economic communities in the developing world.

Project Resources:

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