FAQ

What is Abundant Water?
abundantwater.org is an organisation committed to developing a system using clay pot filters to provide clean drinking water to ethnic Lao villagers. We create partnerships enabling the villagers to produce and distribute their own filters and to educate in their usage. We are creating a system assuring strict quality control ensuring that filters achieve a high standard wherever they are produced.

abundantwater.org aspires to create a model capable of being reproduced by small communities everywhere.

I like this idea can my organisation become involved?
abundantwater.org consists entirely of skilled volunteers. Any interest in our project is welcomed, and any skill or contribution is greatly appreciated. So, please, get in touch (info@abundantwater.org) and tell us how you’d like to be involved.

My organisation would like to use this filter and approach for one of our clean drinking water projects?
The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals requires 125,000 people to be connected to safe water supplies each day. abundantwater.org is conducting the pilot project to arrive at a model capable of reproduction by other organisations in other communities. We can facilitate implimentation of this model by other organisations by offering knowledge transfer and technical support.

We welcome any such interest or enquiry.

If I donate money what will you do with it?
Except for the fees on paypal donations, all money donated goes to direct project costs. This is possible because abundantwater.org is staffed by volunteers, uses freely available open source technology and makes use of the surplus capacity of our volunteers’ office technology.

How can you be sure that the money is spent appropriately?
abundantwater.org follows financial accountability best practice. This is achieved by our financial controller actively overseeing all transactions in the field. We have formed a close working relationship with the potter and local workers and can closely monitor project progress and expenses.

Why is the pilot project so small?
This pilot project is small because the solution to the problem of providing fresh drinking water is a grass-roots approach enabling individual communities to meet their own needs. As this project succeeds in one small community it provides a model that can be replicated in other small communities.

The scale of the pilot project has enabled abundantwater.org to initiate the project with minimal resources and personnel. We believe a smaller project is the obvious first step, more likely to succeed than a larger one and allows us to take time in getting it right the first time.

Why do you work with local people to make their own filter?
There is a saying that epitomises abundantwater.org’s approach. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”. We believe in providing the resources and knowledge for people to solve their own problems. Thus, those in need take ownership of their problem and their solution. When the local community takes responsibility for production of the filters, their distribution and the education about their use it develops local capacity and economic activity. The local community develops a stake in the long term continuation of the system. Although this approach may take longer the chances of success are much greater. Previous efforts have been unsuccessful when they underestimate the effect of local culture and beliefs. abundantwater.org engages the local community and their beliefs from the beginning, giving them ownership and the resulting benefits from it’s success.