According to UNICEF, climate change and conflict are intensifying risks to children of living without enough water, and as usual, it is the poorest who will suffer the most.

Hollywood actor Matt Damon is the co-founder of water.org after a visit to Zambia, where he was struck by the fact that many children in that country are still forced to drink water that “is so dirty it looks like chocolate milk.” He also realised that many children, especially girls, are not able to go to school because they have to spend so much time collecting water from rivers that are far from their homes, and that this is preventing them from getting an education that would lift them out of poverty.

Damon’s charity, which he started together with Gary White, provides small loans to people in dire need of access to water and sanitation.

“The poorest of poor are actually already paying for water, and in a lot of cases paying more than the middle class. If you’re not connected to the infrastructure then you’re taking time away from a job to go to a common water source and spend hours waiting in line with your jerry can to fill up and bring it home. It’s incredibly inefficient” explains Damon.

White says that these poorest of the poor are wasting time and money on bottled water from vendors that can cost 10 or 15 times more than tap water. His idea was to find a way to redirect that money to connecting homes and installing toilets; a “community buy-in” that would be far better in the long-term for all than just dropping in aid.

The loans are not interest-bearing; the idea is to front the communities the money to connect them to existing infrastructure and then allow them to pay back the loans easily over two years; the repayment rate is an impressive 99%. This is known as microfinance: “I loan you money, you buy a sewing machine and then you can start a tailoring business or something.”

The organisation has thus far partnered with 65 local microfinance institutions across nine countries, provided $17m in subsidies, attracted $280m in local investment capital, and helped more than 5 million people pay for the construction of a water connection, toilet or both at their home.

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