Water Scarcity, Sanitation, Irrigation

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Global X Video Interviews

Joe Madiath - Gram Vikas 04:25 Social entrepreneur Joe Madiath, founder and executive director of Gram Vikas, tells Global X what happened when, at age 11, he tried to unionize the workers who were employed by his very own father. Within two months, he was in boarding school!  You should also watch him as he describes how he sees the world in 2017. It's all about human dignity. Gram Vikas' Mission is to promote processes which are sustainable, socially inclusive and gender equitable to enable critical masses of poor and marginalized rural people or communities to achieve a dignified quality of life.  Gram Vikas, which literally means 'Village Development' is an organization that has been working since 1979, to bring about sustainable improvement in the quality of life including sustainable use and management of natural resources like water.

Martin Fisher - Kickstart International 06:07 Global X interviews Martin Fisher, CEO of Kickstart, a nonprofit social enterprise that addresses a major market failure by manufacturing irrigation pumps such as the Super MoneyMaker to help small farmers in the developing world.  "They have only one asset --a small plot of land. And one basic skills: farming. So let's think big, and let's tackle the biggest problems!" says Martin Fisher in this short interview. Listen to his take on poverty: "The number one need of a poor person anywhere in the world is to have a way to make more money. It's not about education, heath care, or clean water, because if you find the way to make more money, you can afford to buy all these things."

Adrien Couton - Acumen Fund Fellow 03:02 In this three-minute interview, Adrien Couton tells Global X why he is proud of his work with International Development Enterprises (India). He helped Amitabha Sadangi write a business plan to raise money for a profit-making venture, worked on exporting IDE's drip irrigation technology to Pakistan and East Africa, and looked into creating an SMS system for resellers to place orders. Adrien Couton proudly tells the story of Ms Patel, who doubled her income thanks to IDE's irrigation device. She was able to send her son to computer science school. And her family is now reunited as her husband doesn't need to work in Bombay six months a year! This is one of 4 million small farmers IDE is serving. The potential? 260 million in India only!

Angelique Smit - Cambodia 03:28 Global X interviews Angelique Smit at the Global Social Benefit Incubator. Originally from the Netherlands, Angelique Smit is now based in Cambodia with Ideas at Work, where she helps market the Rope-Pump to low-income Cambodian villagers. The water pump is designed to improve the quality of lives of village women by lightening the burden of household water collection. Watch this three-minute interview in which Angelique Smit tells Global X why she is an optimist: "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. I want to stay awake!"

Joachim Ezeji - Nigeria 07:28 Global X interviews Joachim Ezeji (GSBI 2007), founder of the Rural Africa Water Development Project in Nigeria, a social venture that improves access to safe drinking water through household water treatment technologies. "Africa wants to change, but the problem is leadership," says the geologist-turned-social-entrepreneur to Global X. The other issue: "Resources. Money is king!" His hope for 2017: "There will be more interest from the first world to help the third world."

Jack Sims - World Toilet Organization 04:17 Jack Sim founded the World Toilet Organization ("the other WTO!") in 2001 when he realized that 40% of the world population had no toilets: "Sometimes they have TV, but no toilets!"  He later founded the World Toilet College with Singapore Polytechnic and won the Schwab Foundation Award For Social Entrepreneurship in 2006.  In this short interview with Global X, he recalls his youth in poor Singapore of the 60's and makes the unavoidable scatological jokes. He then explains why he launched the WTO. The day he turned 40, he realized that he was half-way done with his life and decided to do something important: "A person's life is finite, it doesn't go beyond 80. If you want a full life, you shouldn't focus only on making money. You should find a greater meaning and use this time allocated to you in a useful way and help other people."

Isaac Durojaiye - DMT Toilets 04:34 Isaac Durojaiye, also known as Otunba Gadaffi, is Managing Director of DMT Toilet in Lagos. He is so tall that Global X had to stand on a chair to take a picture of him. Mr. Durojaiye launched his company after noticing that even though 20 million people lived in Lagos, there were very few public toilets, thus creating a health hazard. His mobile toilets are now built locally with local materials, a first in West Africa.

[more Global X Interviews]

Podcasts

Peter Haas , 2008-03-18, Peter Haas received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 2006 to launch the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group and help rural populations get access to affordable and environmentally sound energy and sanitation.

Jenni Morello - Morocco, 2007-12-31, Jenni Morello is currently serving in the Peace Corps as a health teacher in a small village in Southern Morocco where she addresses hygiene and HIV/AIDS issues.

Jim Boylson - Ethiopia, 2007-08-21, Jim Boylson, Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia (1962-1964), was nominated by UCLA's Africa Studies Center professors to be in the first Peace Corps group sent to Ethiopia.  He was assigned as a social science teacher at middle and secondary school levels. He has returned to Africa since, and went back to Ethiopia and Kenya earlier this year, to introduce a new, non-chemical water purification system.

[more podcasts]

Discussions

Water ConferenceSponsored by Changemakers (April - May, 2003)

Jobs

Oxfam India, Human Resources and Administration Manager, Delhi, India

World Toilet Organization, Executive Director, Singapore

Concern Worldwide, Project Director, Dublin or New York

International Development Law Organization (IDLO), Manager, Social Development, Rome, IT

The Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Executive Director Operations, London UK

GEMS of Hope, Manager, International Programs, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), SHE Technical Leader, Rwanda

[More water and health related jobs]
 

Opportunities

Earth Day: The Green Generation  April 22, 2009 and National Environmental Education Week - April 12-18, 2009. Post your event.  See also Adopt-A-Water Project - Help to save a life by donating to a water project on the Global Water Network today! Click here to submit your personal water story.

World Toilet Summit 2-4 December, 2009; Suntec Singapore. Annual global gathering of experts with focused discussions that promote clean toilets, sanitation issues and hygiene.

Central Asia Development Marketplace 2009 Grant Competition: Efficient Water Use for Agriculture Competitive grant program for five countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Deadline to apply: April 10, 2009. Grants of US$10K-25K. All proposals must be submitted in Russian language.

Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship Application Deadline August 12, 2009. Applications from social entrepreneurs working in water scarcity encouraged to apply.

Global Entrepreneurship: Suggest an X Prize.  Seeking competition ideas for entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty.

Fill the Glass: Global Giving World Water Day: Select water projects that raise US$10K will receive an additional US$1,000. Deadline March 30, 2009.

The 5th World Water Forum: Bridging Divides for Water, 16 to 22 March 2009, Istanbul, Turkey, 2008-05-21

World Water Day: Transboundary water: Submit your event or attend an event. International Poster contest. March 22, 2009.

Tapping Youth Innovation:  10 seed grants of up to US$1,000. Open to all youth between the ages of 12 and 20 in North America and Europe and 12 and 24 everywhere else. Deadline: World Water Day - March 22, 2009.

The BBC World Challenge 2009:  Nominations open for projects showing enterprise and innovation at grassroots level. Deadline: 22nd May 2009.

International Year of Sanitation 2008, Millennium Development Goal (MDG): to reduce by half the proportion of the 2,6 billion people without access to basic sanitation by 2015.

1% WATER and Our Future Art Exhibition, 29th of June - 28th of September 2008, Zuivelmarkt 33, Belgium, 2008-08-08

Zaragoza 2008 International Expo: Water and Sustainable Development, 14th June to 14th September, 2008, Zaragoza, Spain, 2008-05-22

2nd Indian Cleantech Forum, 10th & 11th July 2008, New Delhi, India, 2008-05-15

World Ocean Council Launches Global Industry Alliance On “Corporate Ocean Responsibility,” June 24 and June 25, 2008, New York, NY, 2008-06-23

Sustainable Irrigation 2008, Second International Conference on Sustainable Irrigation Management, Technologies and Policies, 11 - 13 June, 2008, Alicante, Spain, 2008-06-10

The Piramal Prize a $25K Social Entrepreneurship Competition, Entries addressing India's healthcare crisis are due April 1st, 2008, 2008-01-07

Engineers Without Borders - USA 2008 International Conference, Sustainable Engineering & Global Health, March 27-30, 2008, 2008-01-07

Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging the Water and Sanitation Crisis, Changemakers competition - Entries due March 26, 2008, 2008-03-20

[more water opportunities]

Wiki Resources & Information

Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit In Water Wars, Vandana Shiva reveals how many of the most important conflicts of our time, most often camouflaged as ethnic wars or religious wars, such as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are in fact conflicts over scarce but vital natural resources.

Covenant over Middle Eastern Waters, Joyce Shira Starr, Covenant over Middle Eastern Waters: Key to World Survival

JS Lansing: water temples and complexity, JS Lansing, Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali

Other Blog Mentions:

Fundraising for K-12 social entrepreneurs, 2008-02-13 "...on the RandomKid water project... "(Kids) are the ones who can change the world because they have not learned that they can't."    You may read more here:  http://edbrenegar.typepad.com/leading_questions/2008/02/water-for-life.html  RandomVideo of teachers and 4th graders who funded a South African water pump:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1vg_hSVx1c

Design Thinking, 2007-03-28 10:08, "4 people of the Stanford University institute of Design (the D.School) immersed us in the world of design, mindmapping and rapid prototyping. Only 1 minute in the room, we were already developing a water reservoir for a 1 dollar a day family in a developing country..."

Redefine Normal :: G8 :: African 8, 2007-06-09, "Give prioity to women and girls in providing safe water..."

Internet, but no flush toilet, 2007-06-07, "I WAS surprised at the big anomaly between the Internet, lights, electricity and… no flush toilet. Clearly their priorities are driven by what technology can offer for the future."

Shit Business Brings Dignity, 2007-05-13 , "The message here is this:  Yes, these people are poor.  It doesn’t mean they don’t deserve (or want) the dignity of being a CONSUMER and the dignity of having access to toilets and showers."

Message in a Bottle, 2007-04-07, Ellen imagines an Ethos–Belu smackdown for title of “Most Ethical Bottled Water.”

Don't subsidize the poor, says Indian social entrepreneur --again!, 2006-11-01, Amitabha Sadangi from IDE on irrigation pumps.

 
KickStart: Social entrepreneurs use technology (and more) to eradicate poverty in Africa [84%] by globalx, 2006-11-01, “We are in the business of eradicating poverty. To do that we design, distribute and sell irrigation equipment,” says Martin Fisher."

No Toilets in African Schools? Girls Drop Out, 2006-11-01, "A Unicef report mentions that enrollment rates for girls between 1997 and 2002 in Guinea went up 17% after improvement in school sanitation. The dropout rate fell by an even bigger percentage."

No Honeymooon in Vegas, 2006-10-29, "Gram Vikas, which means village development, is dedicated to addressing severe poverty and unsafe health conditions in Orissa’s community of “untouchables.” The Rural Health and Environment Programme develops critical infrastructure to ensure that local people have access to clean water and sanitation systems. According to Oren, 80% of the disease in the area – including malaria and tuberculosis –is caused by unsafe water and living conditions."

Opening Plenary - CGI, 2006-10-28  "Then she [Mrs Bush] announced a new public-private alliance to address the problem of lack of clean drinking water in Africa and other regions called PlayPumps. These are children's merry-go-rounds that are also pumps, pumping water out of wells, "fueled by a limitless energy source." Children playing brings up clean water. This program is funded in an alliance with Steve Case's Case Foundation and Ray Chambers' MCJ Foundation."

Global Social Benefit Incubator Class of 2008:

The Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI), a program developed by Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society, assists social benefit entrepreneurs in developing business plans that enable their organizations to reach increasing numbers of beneficiaries.  Each year the GSBI online application process is hosted by Social Edge and includes three mentored business plan exercises.  This year there were a number of applicants presenting their water solutions.

Deepinder Mohan
Environment Planning Group Limited (EPGL), India
Provides micro-organism free, drinking water supply for residential and commercial users (homes, hospitals, restaurants, schools) in rural and urban India through reverse osmosis purification at rates 50% less than existing market rates.  View his GSBI business plan application:  Exercise 1: Target Market, Exercise 2: Value Proposition, Exercise 3: Business Model.

Carlos Perea
Miox Corporation, Senegal
www.miox.com
Offers convenient water disinfectant for direct household applications to serve the urban Sengalese poor and reduce water-borne disease. The disinfection technology scales from portable hand-held units to systems capable of treating >100 million gallons of water per day. View his GSBI business plan application:  Exercise 1: Target Market, Exercise 2: Value Proposition, Exercise 3: Business Model.

Amit Jain
Naandi Foundation, India
www.naandi.org
Incorporates reverse osmosis and ultra violet technologies to create safe drinking water for India’s poor, resulting in improved health and productivity. View his GSBI business plan application:  Exercise 1: Target Market, Exercise 2: Value Proposition, Exercise 3: Business Model.

Tendai Mawunga
Pumpaid, Zimbabwe and Malawi
www.pumpaid.org
Utilizes low-cost rope and washer hand pumps to supply clean residential water  in Zimbabwe and Malawi with surplus directed to agricultural activities, improving  the quality of life for the communities served.

Dr. B. S. Choudri
Clean Water Through Riverbank Filtration (RBF), India
www.cce.uri.edu/news/releases/?id=4056
Uses riverbank filtration wells―a low cost geological process that’s easily replicated for transforming polluted water into clean natural drinking water for India’s poor. 

More GSBI applicants addressing water issues:

Drinking Water through Locally Assembled Solar Desalination Units at Household level, 2008-01-30 

1.1 Total Available Market: There is no life without fresh drinking water and drinking water crisis is growing year after year. ...

Rainwater Harvesting System For Homes, 2008-01-18 

1.1 Total Available Market: Rainwater Harvesting System Rainwater Harvesting System ...

A proactive Safe Water Kiosk program to meet the MDG's for affordable drinking water, 2008-01-20 

1.1 Total Available Market: The total available market of people who are "unserved " with potable water is currently 1.1 Billion.

Helping Communities Connect Surfing and Sustainable Development: WAVES for Development, 2008-01-24 

1.1 Total Available Market: WAVES for Development is a not-for-profit association in Peru dedicated to helping communities connect surfing and sustainable development.

Other Water Search Results on Social Edge for:

Acumen, IDE, Irrigation, KickStart, Joe Madiath, Amitabha Sadangi, Sanitation, Gram Vikas

See also Uncommon Heros: Amitabha Sadangi (International Development Enterprises)

Meet Amitabha Sadangi, a businessman who gave up wealth and fortune to tackle irrigation and poverty in India.  Amitabha Sadangi's vision is to empower the rural poor with affordable, sustainable agricultural technologies. He has been a leader in creating an Indian strategy and organization to disseminate technologies developed by International Development Enterprises (India). Foot treadle irrigation pumps and low-cost drip systems introduced by IDE (India) have helped 400,000 families double their income, a net gain of more than $40 million per year. A signature element of the IDE (India) strategy is a "supply chain" of local manufacturers, distributors and installers who earn $1 million annually. IDE (India) has sold irrigation systems to the poorest families for as little as $1, enabling them to have more food and earn more money and, thus, afford better health care and education.

More videos on IDE.

More videos on KickStart.

See also Frontline segment:  South Africa: The Play Pump  Turning water into child's play .
In rural villages across South Africa, some 5 million people don't have access to clean drinking water. In this week's Rough Cut, Africa correspondent Amy Costello brings us a surprisingly upbeat tale about Trevor Field, a canny entrepreneur who decided to tackle South Africa's water woes in his own novel and enterprising way. read more

Also from Frontline: Mozembique - Guitar Hero 
Far away from the modern world, in northern Mozambique, lies a vast expanse of land known as Niassa...People have come from all around to see and hear Feliciano Dos Santos, one of Mozambique’s biggest Afro-pop stars. ... Most rock stars don’t sing about hygiene and sanitation. Then again, not many rock stars live and work in Niassa, one of the poorest places on earth, where people survive on subsistence farming and lack amenities such as indoor plumbing. Born and raised in Niassa, Santos writes and performs songs that literally save lives. His hit, “Wash Your Hands,” is part of a public health campaign organized by his non-profit group, Estamos, that promotes the installation of pumps to provide clean drinking water and “EcoSan” toilets to improve sanitation.