NEWEA has had a Water For People (WFP) committee for over 7 years now and has grown each year.  The WFP committee has brought awareness and NEWEA member participation in fighting the world water crisis.  Proceeds from NEWEA committee events like the Annual Softball Tournament and Spring Conference Fun Run go directly to WFP projects in NEWEA's adopted country of Malawi (The money raised from the biennial gala is divided up between Malawi and NEWWA's adopted country of Hondurus).

In Malawi, one of the projects funded by NEWEA's fundraising is a pilot program to test a new approach to the challenges of school and community based sanitation.  School sanitation is combined with a children's household toilet program to reduce the incidence of diarrhea by eliminating open defecation by toddlers, increasing hand washing, and facilitating household upgrades of latrines.  The program starts as a "school-beautification" competition where schools are provided "arbor-loos" which are round, cement latrine slabs (80 centimeters in diameter) that are placed over shallow pits.  When the pit is full, the slab is moved to another pit, and a fruit tree, donated by the government of Malawi, is planted in each used pit. The trees thrive in the rich compost generated from human waste.  In the second phase of the program, students are given vouchers that can be redeemed through their family's purchase of a household latrine, which is purchased on a loan. The vendor provides and constructs an EcoSan latrine.  Latrines are built with two compartments. After the first compartment is filled, the family seals it for composting.  After the contents have dried completely (usually nine months after the compartment has been closed), the vendor returns to buy the valuable compost from the family, which is then sold to a fertilizer company.  With each collection, the household works down its debt to the sanitation vendor.  In this model, simply using the latrine becomes an income-generating activity, and therefore makes household payment of a loan more feasible than in previous sanitation microcredit projects.  Read more.

A number of NEWEA members have been involved with WFP beyond the local committee activities.  

• Tim Brown (Stonybrook Water Company) partners with WFP and donates 5 percent of his company's revenue to this worthy cause.  
• The NEWEA WFP Chair, David VanHoven (Black & Veatch), and his wife, Martha Fernandes (MWH), were in Rwanda in January as part of a WFP World Water Corps volunteer trip.  They were part of a mapping and assessment team that collected water and sanitation data in remote villages of the Rulindo district where WFP plans to start working.  Their work is being compiled in a report that will be used to create the five-year plan for WFP's work in Rwanda.  Look for their work at the next NEWEA annual conference.

There are a number of ways to be involved with Water For People and the local NEWEA WFP committee.  Please contact David VanHoven to learn more or to get involved.

Article written by: David VanHoven, WFP Committee Chair