Donor: Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), AquaFund, Japan Special Fund Poverty Reduction Program, Embassy of Japan in Colombia, GE Foundation, Alcaldía Guachené, Corona Organization, Siemens Foundation
Local Allies: Fundación Propal, Fundación ECSIM, Fundación Conhydra, Vialsa Ingenieros, CINARA
Beneficiaries: 230 families (Over 1,000 beneficiaries)
Location: Cañasgordas, Antioquia
In Colombia, there are currently 3.3 million homes without running water and 4 million homes without sewarage connections. The two things are necessities for basic human life, yet many people have no access to these.
As part of the project “Comprehensive Models of Access to Water and Sanitation“, Give To Colombia developed a pilot in Cañasgordas where families who have no access to clean water often do so because they lack the financial options required to improve their homes and connect to the local water plant.
To solve this issue, Give To Colombia designed and implemented a sustainable, innovative, and financially inclusive model for the community and the local companies. This model also included a socio-economic and technical diagnostic, as well as a social marketing strategy where we reached out to the families in Cañasgordas and informed them of the health benefits that clean water could provide.
As part of this intervention, we built the infrastructure that connects homes with water services and proper sewerage, and installed sanitary infrastructure such as kitchen sinks, bathroom sinks, toilets, showers, and kitchen faucets. Through our efforts, 230 families can now drink clean water, wash their plates and utensils, and do so many simple tasks they could not before.
This project won the award for the Most Innovative Water & Sanitation Project in Latin America and the Caribbean by the Inter-American Development Bank and FEMSA in October of 2014 and has now become the inspiration for our Water Flow game.
To learn more about our project, we invite you to watch this video about one of our beneficiaries, the Guzman family.