WATER IS LIFE
We believe everyone has the right to safe and accessible drinking water.
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Safe and accessible drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are fundamental to human health. Without them, people have to rely on unclean water sources, leading to widespread illness and over a million deaths each year. When children are sick, they cannot go to school. When adults are sick, they cannot earn a living to provide for their families. In this way, contaminated water prevents families, communities, and entire regions from reaching their potential. Learn more here from the World Health Organization.
With the support of donors like you, Lifewater Canada has drilled 2,370 wells, rehabilitated 1,100 out-of-service wells, repaired 6,800 broken hand pumps, built 170 community washrooms, and held countless health and hygiene workshops since we began in 1995.
But there is still an enormous need for more.
Provide the life-saving gift
of safe, accessible water.
You'll never regret it.
We can never stop drilling new wells! Although repairing broken wells is more cost-effective, most of the wells we repair have failed due to extreme over-use. We therefore must drill more wells to lessen the demand on each well that is in operation, while continuing to repair and rehabilitate broken and out-of-service wells.
We fix broken hand pumps and rehabilitate out-of-service wells, including those installed by other organizations that no longer maintain them. We strive to help communities work toward self-reliant maintenance, as each well has an official Caretaker who the community has selected and we have trained and equipped.
Open defecation directly contributes to disease, poverty, malnutrition, and death - especially in children under the age of 5. Building a latrine, though not always glamorous, is life-giving to a community. We build community toilets and hand-washing stations at schools, orphanages, medical clinics, and community centres.
We teach communities about the importance of handwashing and how to sanitize their water and environment. We also explain how to produce an oral rehydration solution that can aid diarrhea victims (often children). We teach about the significance of menstrual hygiene and provide free “dignity kits”, containing reusable sanitary pads, for women and girls.
Haiti has a tragic history rampant with external political and military interference, natural disasters, and short-sighted international aid projects. In response, Lifewater Canada helped establish a local non-profit organization called Lifewater d'Haiti. Learn more.
Since 2003, Lifewater's partnership with Nigeria has persevered amidst unimaginable challenges - all while the nation suffered internal religious conflicts and devastating Boko Haram attacks. In 2020 the current team was established and has since flourished. Learn more.
More than 200,000 people were killed during Liberia's civil wars, and most of the nation's wells and other water supplies were destroyed. In 1995 our founders were invited by the European Union and the Liberian government to test their existing well's water quality. Thus began our ongoing work in Liberia. We now have two partner teams - Lifewater Liberia and STS-Lifewater. Learn more.
Located in the Greater Horn of Africa, more than 80% of the land in Kenya is arid or semi-arid. Severe water scarcity affects the nation as they are impacted by climate change and vulnerable to droughts and floods. Rapid urbanization and refugee displacement has left the rural areas and urban slums especially in need. Lifewater has partnered with three local organizations. Learn more.
hours saved
per day
minutes saved
per household
daily savings
per person
monthly school
days recovered
total monthly economic impact
beneficiaries
SROI (social return on investment)
In fiscal 2024, we recorded 672,529 hours saved per day in water hauling duties no longer necessary, which averaged to 90.1 minutes per household per day. Daily savings per person averaged $0.18 USD from their previous water costs. 462,263 monthly school days were recovered from students no longer having to travel long distances for water, and the total monthly economic impact of our work was $10,607,812.73 USD, benefiting 2,238,489 people. Our internal social return value for each $1 invested (SROI) calculation for fiscal 2024 was $5.00, meaning each donated dollar generated $5.00 of benefits.
One of the key benefits of drilling a well and making safe water easily accessible is increased school attendance. When children no longer need to spend hours each day walking to and from distant ponds and creeks for water for their families, they can be in their classrooms. At times however, we see improved attendance among the boys but not among the girls. Learn more here.
It's the generosity and personal sacrifices of donors like you that make Lifewater possible. Without our donors' support, no water would flow and no lives would be saved. We thought it would be encouraging to introduce some of those faithful donors to you. Learn more by reading their profiles here.
Hosea Apeh is a professor who teaches in the Faculty of Education at Nigeria's Abuja University. He also leads our partner team in Nigeria. He has suffered many setbacks but persevered in his goal of providing safe water to rural Nigerians. We hope Hosea's “impact story” — including a recent update — inspires you just as much as it continues to inspire us. Read Hosea's story.
We are proud to be an organization that places people first and keeps them at the center of everything we do. With only a handful of employees in Canada, We seek to empower and equip in-country teams made up of local people.
We are committed to keeping our overhead costs below 10% and being ultra transparent in our financial and business practices.
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