empowering improving sustaining
Clean Water for Haiti is a faith based, volunteer run, non-profit mission that is made up of a family of ministries - the Clean Water for Haiti Foundation in Haiti, Clean Water for Haiti US, and the CWH Foundation of Canada. We exist to provide the people of Haiti with affordable access to clean water in their homes through the use of Bio-sand water filters.
As a development organization we also believe in practicing good stewardship by using local labor for most of our work and purchasing local materials whenever possible to encourage the local economy. Essentially all donations get spent twice – once to provide people with clean water in their homes, and a second time by providing jobs for local Haitians.
Why Bio-sand water filters? Haiti has a water problem. Most water sources are contaminated. Most people can't afford expensive filtration systems, and can't afford to buy treated water. They have no choice but to use these contaminated sources.
Since our start in 2001 we have worked hard to establish a program that is providing lasting change, not just in Haiti, but worldwide. Here are just a few of the impacts.
Drilling community wells requires a certain degree of community involvement, and it is very difficult to work with a community. Specifically, it is very hard to find people willing to take care of a well once it is drilled.We stopped our well drilling program in 2005.
Each filter costs us about $50 USD. We build, deliver and install the filters ourselves, so that cost includes raw materials, labor, fuel and electricity. It also includes the costs of our follow up program.
In many parts of Haiti, locals drink right out of irrigation canals which are highly contaminated with fecal matter. The more fortunate people are able to use piped water, but this water is contaminated as well, only to a lesser degree. The Biosand filter works well with all these types of source water. The Biosand won't removed dissolved minerals, however, which means that a very salty well or sea water can't be treated.
All of the materials necessary are available in Haiti, although we choose to import about $2 worth of material per filter as a cost savings and because we can't always find the quantities that we need in country.
Data shows that 95% of our filters are still being used after the first year – an adoption rate that is almost unheard of in the development world. What we're doing WORKS!
We have led the development of several filter mold redesigns that have been used worldwide by other filter projects.
We have installed over 19,000 filters since 2001, making Clean Water for Haiti the largest continually operating Bio-sand filter project not only in Haiti, but in any single country around the world.