Twenty years of clean water

Without water,
there is no life.

Over two decades, Water Charity completed more than 40,000 water and sanitation projects in 90 countries, benefiting upwards of 45 million people.

See the work Support the mission

Twenty years, worldwide

90 countries, one idea.

Every highlighted country hosted at least one Water Charity project.

World map highlighting the 90 countries where Water Charity has worked, across the Americas, Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia

20years of work
40,000+projects completed
90countries reached
45M+people benefited

A crew in safety vests pulls a pump rod from a borehole during a handpump repair

Our approach

Fix first.
Then build.

Across the developing world, countless wells and handpumps sit broken. Repairing one costs a fraction of drilling a new one and brings a community back online in days, not months. So well repair has always been our main intervention. It's a no-brainer.

We work alongside local partners, keep overhead to a minimum, and often start a project before asking for donations, so the water flows sooner.

What we do

Five ways we brought water home

01

Well & handpump repair

Our core work. Rehabilitating broken wells and pumps instead of drilling new ones whenever we can.
02

Water filters

Household and community filtration where the source is there but the water isn't safe to drink.
03

Schools & clinics

Running water to classrooms and health clinics, where clean water matters most.
04

Rainwater catchment

Capturing and storing rainfall for communities without a reliable groundwater source.
05

Disaster relief

Humanitarian response, including filters for displaced persons camps after crises.

Portfolio

From the field

Photos from Water Charity’s own archive, shared by the team.

Children with yellow jerry cans gather around a working handpump — **A working handpump**The whole village shows up when the water comes back.

Women gather around water basins outside a blue-shuttered wooden building — **Community water point**Basins filled for washing and drinking.

Women laugh as water gushes from a handpump into a bucket — **Water again**Clean water pouring from a working handpump.

A smiling girl drinks from her cupped hands under a tap — **First taste**Clean water, straight from the tap.

A young girl drinks from her cupped hands under a running tap — **Safe to drink**A tap that runs clean, close to home.

A worker stands under a jet of water bursting from a newly flushed borehole — **Striking water**A borehole flushed and running.

Young students wash their hands at a row of school taps — **Handwashing at school**Taps and basins that keep classrooms healthy.

“With so many wells and handpumps in disrepair, fixing them instead of drilling new wells is a no-brainer.”

A crowd gathers around a blue community water filter as it fills buckets — A community water filter, out in the field.

A long line of yellow jerry cans waits at a water point — A community water filter, out in the field.

The mark

A symbol that became water.

The sun, the spiral and the stepped terraces of the original Water Charity symbol, reshaped over the years into a single drop.

The original logoSymbol and wordmark, as printed on shirts and banners for years.

The classic Water Charity diamond symbol in blue — **The symbol**Sun, spiral and stepped terraces in one diamond.

First study: the symbol traced inside a water drop outline — **Becoming a drop**Three studies that folded the symbol into a single drop of water, from line drawing to the finished mark.

Second study: the symbol cut out of a solid drop — **Becoming a drop**Three studies that folded the symbol into a single drop of water, from line drawing to the finished mark.

A single drop of water falling from a tap, with the Earth reflected inside it

Why water

Lack of clean drinking water is the leading cause of death in children worldwide.
It kills more people than all forms of violence combined, including war.
It is entirely preventable. We estimate the world water crisis could be solved for about $45 billion, roughly a month of military spending.