Changing the World Through Water - A Conversation with Kelly Parsons, WaterAid America’s Chief Executive Officer

 

Tell us about WaterAid America and its impact. 

WaterAid America is an international non-profit with one goal: to change the world through water. Along with decent toilets and good hygiene, a reliable supply of clean water is essential for health, dignity and a life full of opportunity. Childbirth is safer and children get the chance to grow up healthy and strong. Families thrive and whole communities are better prepared for whatever the future holds.

Founded in 1981, we work alongside communities worldwide setting up entire systems that deliver clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene for millions. And we get the people, policies and money in place to keep these systems working and the water flowing for good, so people have safe, reliable services that last.

There are so many organizations in the International WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) space. What sets WaterAid America apart?
WaterAid’s work goes beyond drilling wells, building taps and installing toilets. We put people first and create sustainable solutions, which requires changing attitudes, behaviors and policies—the systems that keep the water running.
We work with a broad range of people and organizations, including communities, governments, civil society, educational institutions and the private sector to understand the barriers to sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene, and identify solutions.
Collaboration ensures that the people and institutions responsible for providing services also have the skills and financing needed to build and maintain infrastructure when it breaks down or provide community education if hygiene habits lapse.

How do you decide where to work?

WaterAid’s mission is to transform lives by improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene in the world’s poorest communities.

Many countries face significant barriers to delivering universal, sustainable and safe WASH. The enormity of this problem underlines the need for intensive and targeted work to strengthen the whole WASH system and deliver change at a significant scale.

Through our global strategy, WaterAid targets specific sub-national areas and works with local, national and global actors to deliver a locally led, joined-up effort to achieve universal, sustainable and safe WASH. Evidence and learning from this work will help tackle wider systemic barriers that hinder progress by influencing and catalyzing similar locally led changes at even greater scale.

A focus of your work is strengthening capacity in communities. Can you explain what this means and share an example of this work.

We train communities to practice hygiene, locally maintain infrastructure, safely store water and test water quality. We bring hygiene campaigns to schools and health centers, enabling people to become changemakers by spreading knowledge about the connections between hygiene and health.

A great example is the Local Area Mechanics initiative. In 2023, 20 women and girls in Lagos, Nigeria, were trained with new skills and hands-on experience working on water facilities throughout their communities, including fixing taps, running new pipes and setting up solar powered water pumps. Now these women have the knowledge and income generating opportunities that can have long term impact on their lives and communities, from keeping the water flowing in a home kitchen to ensuring babies are delivered into clean hands at healthcare centers.

You all have a new campaign, what was the inspiration for this campaign?

Clean water is something we all need to not only survive but thrive. But right now 2.2 billion people–a quarter of humanity—don’t have safe water. And climate change is making the situation worse. #TeamWater gives us the chance to shine a light on water on a global scale.

On August 1, WaterAid launched #TeamWater, a transformational partnership with philanthropist and world’s most popular YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) and Mark Rober, science creator and former NASA engineer. #TeamWater is a one-month global campaign to mobilize $40 million to reach 2 million people with life-changing access to clean water, for decades.

Powered by the biggest team of content creators on the internet and millions of young people around the world, #TeamWater is a movement to make a tangible, lasting difference in the world, raising awareness about the global water crisis and creating energy – and action! – around real solutions.

What are you most excited about when thinking about Water Aid America’s work over the next 5 years?

In 2022, WaterAid launched a new global strategy, a huge step change in our ambition and approach over the next decade.

Over the years, WaterAid and our partners have transformed the lives of tens of millions of people through clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene.

We are working to reach hundreds of millions more, bringing the day closer when everyone, everywhere has sustainable access to these essentials.