The water.org initiative to bring water to all

Edited by Cantine Brusa

"Bringing drinking water and sanitation to a billion people ": this is the ambitious goal of Gary White, CEO of "Water.org", a non-profit organization co-founded in 2009 along with Matt Demon.

Gary is a civil and environmental engineer from Kansas City, Missouri, and together with the famous Hollywood actor, Matt Damon, he created an "anti-welfare" project, which serves to put the country in a position to provide for its own needs .

In the 1980s and 1990s - Gary explained to the US press - water projects tended to fail miserably: non-profit organizations chose a poor community, dug a well, organized a beautiful ceremony and took some souvenir photos, but it all ended there.

Gary's approach to the problem of access to water is completely different: in 2003 he created " Water Credit ", a program that supports microcredit institutions in Asia and Africa, in turn providing micro-loans for water services and sanitation and ensures that local communities are fully involved in the implementation and maintenance of any infrastructure.

To date, 300, 000 people have benefited from a micro-loan, and 97% of them have been repaid.

There is a famous saying that says, "If a man is hungry, don't give him fish, teach him to fish." Gary taught just that.

A fundamental aspect of this project is that also the members of the community on which you work are considered partners and everyone must take responsibility for the construction and future maintenance of the infrastructures, the sanitation and the payment of water tariffs.

The community, in fact, faces at least 10% of the total construction costs - in cash or by supplying materials for construction or labor -. According to Gary, in fact, " the fact that communities invest money directly in a water project, greatly increases the chances that it will last over time ".

Cantine Brusa, an Italian company from Toscanella di Dozza, in Emilia Romagna that brings Made in Italy to the world and is made up of 35 employees who believe in their work, in quality, in development and therefore in people's dignity, he says, like many other companies in the world, this important initiative not only economically but also contributing to its spread. Why? Simply because water.org helps restore meaning to work and work represents the essence of people's dignity.

Of course problems like these are very complex and to find concrete and definitive solutions not only good intentions or simple donations are enough but all together we can surely make the difference. For this reason, we invite everyone, institutions, companies, individuals and associations to support water.org by collaborating with the project, as it proposes a new solution based on new financing models with greater transparency for a lasting change . The water.org project means "drinking water and dignity for all" and we want to be part of it!

According to the United Nations, there are still 1 billion people in the world who have no access to water and the road ahead is still very long and uphill. But, when they ask Gary, he answers without hesitation: " Yes, I'm sure we'll make it ".

Just a small donation to give hope to the old and new generations!