There’s already a solution!
Our engineering team designs innovative, contextualized water treatment systems that bring safe drinking water to at-risk communities at radically affordable prices. But we don’t stop at hardware. To ensure lasting impact, our culturally relevant health and hygiene programs produce critical behavior change and our water-business operations training gives community leaders the know-how they need to sustain safe water for generations.
Our Water Treatment Solutions Technology
Access to water is not enough – everyone has a right to water that is safe. That is why every project Healing Waters implements includes purification technology to provide reliably safe water for entire communities. There is no one-size-fits-all solution; our team designs and implements each system to fit the local context, but some key features are consistent across all HWI systems:
Safe Water
Removes bacteria, virus, cysts, parasites, particulates, and other harmful substances as appropriate. Separation membrane technology removes any risk of operator error.
Clean Bottles
An integrated bottle sanitizing station ensures that safe water isn’t put into dirty bottles.
Sustainability
All system components can be affordably supplied to the community – often acquired locally – and easily changed-out ensuring sustainable operations.
System Design and Components
- Every system includes separation membrane technology – either ultrafiltration or reverse osmosis, whichever best fits the context following a site assessment.
- Every system is custom-sized to meet the demand of the community – always providing enough water to meet the needs but not incurring greater operating costs by having a larger system than necessary.
- Systems often include durable local components together with specialty components sourced by HWI. Our field offices maintain inventory in-country to supply projects with replacement parts as needed.
Versatile Water and Power Configurations
- Systems can be configured to use whatever power is available: solar, grid, or even gravity alone in certain cases.
- Solutions utilize a diverse range of water sources including brackish water.
- Our water-efficient designs recover 75-96% of water that passes through (up to 30% more than other systems of similar scope).
Health & Hygiene Education
In addition to safe water access, understanding how water is contaminated and how to prevent the spread of germs are vital components to improving health. Our health and hygiene staff at Healing Waters empower local trainers to implement our program in their own communities. Healing Waters has two innovative curriculum – one for women and one for children – and our team works with the local trainers to adapt the program delivery for the best reach in each community.
CHILDREN’S CURRICULUM
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
Water-borne diseases are one of the leading causes of death for children under 5 around the world. Reducing water-borne illnesses also means less stunted growth, few sick days from school, and even improved attention at school. Good health requires good habits and teaching kids means they can carry these healthy habits with them for the rest of their lives.
Through six fun, interactive, and practical classes about drinking safe water, how germs make us sick, handwashing, personal hygiene, nutrition, and keeping our environment clean, children learn how they can be healthy – inside and out. The program also uses Psalm 139 to show children that they are marvelous creations immensely loved by God.
YOUNG WOMEN’S CURRICULUM
Clothed in Strength and Dignity
Our Women’s Program teaches women how to protect themselves and their families from illness through health & hygiene education. This information is taught in six lessons through intimate discussion groups that meet in homes in the community and are led by a local facilitator trained by our Health & Hygiene staff.
Our program focuses not only on physical health—but also spiritual and emotional health. With reflections on Psalm 139 and 31, our program shows women their value in God’s eyes. We have found that no matter the context or background – most women feel alone and overwhelmed with the cares of the world. The vision of our program is to provide a vehicle for women to come together with other women, share, and learn about important issues that affect their daily lives.
We also know that because women are influencers in their households and communities, and they will share and spread what they learn in the program with others for even greater impact.
Water-Business Operations
Access to safe water will not create lasting impact without a sustainable model for operations, maintenance, and funding. Healing Waters works with each local site partner to create a community-appropriate distribution and sales model so that local leaders can effectively manage their own self-sustainable water business.
Our staff trains a local operator in equipment maintenance, operations, and administration, in order to run their own small water business that sells water at a truly affordable price. The revenue from water sales allows the project to cover maintenance costs and to supply water for the entire community.
After the initial training, HWI continues to support the local leadership through in-person visits and quarterly monitoring to track key performance indicators and help troubleshoot any advanced technical issues that arise. This monitoring goes beyond waterpoint functionality to assess preventative maintenance and administrative activities that ensure the project is able to reach the people and the impact it was designed for.