Our
Approach
Professional Water Services at Scale
Our Water4 Enterprises
Our local businesses are the backbone of the Water4 approach. We build enterprises that are professionally run and can stand on their own two feet. They put sustain in sustainable development by living and working in the communities they serve. We are obsessed with developing teams and individuals so they are empowered to solve their own local water crisis.
The Business Model
We believe that when people pay for water, two things happen. First, customers value and use the water wisely. Second, payment ensures that the enterprise can maintain high quality services all the time. That may sound simple, but in the rural water sector, building with the end in mind is revolutionary.
The Scale
Water4 enterprises are empowered and financed to grow quickly from small drill teams to micro-utilities that can serve an entire district, city, or sub-county. Water4 provides seed capital and continuous training on a host of business and technical skill areas. As the enterprise scales, it covers more of its operating costs with its own-source revenues. The enterprise gradually replaces donor support with commercial finance and revenue generated from services to grow its water business.
The Technology
Status quo water infrastructure is centralized, heavy, and expensive to maintain. Imagine 30 engineers in an American office design a system they’ve never had to operate in the long term… Water4 offers a better solution. By their very structure, social enterprises must adapt, innovate and grow with evolving water markets. They have dual incentives toward self-reliance and market expansion in a way that is modular, fit-for-purpose and climate-resilient. We offer different levels of service to different customer types based on affordability and geography. For Water4, “best-in-class” is a system that lasts. Achieving this is done through two primary delivery mechanisms:
How We Work
Our Services
Partnerships:
Identifying the best environment to start and scale water businesses in partnership with governments and communities.
GEO-PHYSICAL SURVEYING:
Appropriate surveying technology and training to our Water4 Enterprises to determine where to drill and what type of drilling equipment to use.
DESIGN:
Cost-effective and modular design and construction methods that are replicable based on community size and demand.
Well Drilling:
Innovative, low-cost drilling methods and hydrogeology training to ensure drilling and borehole construction best practices and standards are exceeded, and training for supervising and monitoring mechanical drilling contractors.
WaSH TRAINING:
Market-based training for communities on the benefits of affordable, safe water and the need to fund sustainable services.
Sales & Marketing:
Strategies that support communities to move up the safe water services ladder toward more convenient and safer access.
Monitoring & Evaluation
Centralized tracking of functionality, water quality and operational data that enables performance benchmarking for Sustainable Development Goal 6 and beyond.
operations & maintenance
Professional technicians with 24/7 access to expert support on hand pump and NUMA systems.