How Kwara Communities Stopped Drinking Contaminated Water From Same Source With Cows

Zero Mass Water partnered with the Navajo Nation to bring water into the homes of rural residents who may not have easy access to a water source. Hydropanels that connect to a tap inside the home use sunlight to absorb enough water vapor to make at least 10 liters of water per day. While people at first were skeptical about the idea during a pilot test, the company and Navajo officials are hoping to scale the solution.

Architect Kalpana Ramesh and the Rainwater Project, supported by Telangana's government, are restoring centuries-old abandoned stepwells as functional water sources by removing decades of accumulated garbage, rebuilding stone structures, and installing rainwater-harvesting systems. Since the first restoration was completed in December 2022, the well has consistently maintained a water depth of nine meters, even during the summer, providing clean water for the first time in 40 years. To date, 25 stepwells have been restored across Telangana.

The nonprofit Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Projects is installing advanced, three-stage wastewater filtration systems at homes in Lowndes County, Alabama, where effective wastewater treatment options are urgently needed. The nonprofit installs and maintains the systems for $20 per month, using two major federal grants to cover the upfront costs.

A public campaign is improving access to toilets in Nigerian communities to put a stop to open defecation. These affordable, easy-to-install, plastic toilets have a counterweighted door that ensures an air-tight seal to minimize odor and keep pests away.

The Grassroots Aid Initiative uses the power of photography to bring safe drinking water to communities in Nigeria. The women-led nonprofit takes pictures of these villages and uses the images to crowdfund on social media. So far, they’ve been able to bring motorized boreholes in 15 communities to help combat water scarcity.

The international organization Riders for Health provided an electric generator to a community in Nigeria to power their water pump and get them access to clean drinking water.

Innovation is the key to resilience. In Branson, Colorado, the community of only 55 residents and with volunteer town council has taken on the massive task of bringing its water system up to compliance with the Colorado Department of Health. Because the state and federal government did not have the specific resources to assist Branson, the community turned to a locally developed, innovative water filtration system and an unorthodox funding campaign to pay for it.

Following decades of oil companies contaminating the water, indigenous groups in Ecuador’s Sucumbíos province have built systems for rainwater collection and filtration. These systems have provided people with clean water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and bathing--a potentially powerful tool for other contaminated rural areas.

In Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, where 54 percent of the world's mountain gorillas reside, NGOs and locals are combining efforts to stem human-gorilla conflict. By funneling tourism dollars into community development projects, conflict resolution, and disease control, conservation goals and development goals are starting to align.

Investing in tanks to collect rainwater can help remote communities increase their resilience to shortages and improve the lives of residents. In Kisumu County, Kenya, villagers who struggle with water shortages have turned to collecting rainwater. Although the county is preparing to drill new boreholes to serve local schools and hundreds of residents, acute water shortages are made more bearable by storing rainwater.