Evidence Action is proud to announce that we are now officially registered under South Pole Carbon’s International Water Purification Programme to generate carbon credits for Dispensers for Safe Water in Uganda. The project in Uganda will be jointly registered with the Gold Standard Foundation, meaning that it meets the highest standards of sustainable development for the communities in which we work. Dispensers for Safe Water, one of Evidence Action’s flagship programs operating in Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi, reduces the need to burn fossil fuels as a means of boiling drinking water. Instead, people are able to purify their water with the simple and effective addition of a small amount of chlorine directly at the water source.
Under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, emission reduction projects in developing countries can earn ‘Certified Emission Reductions’, also known as carbon credits. The carbon credits generated by chlorine dispensers can be used, in turn, by industrialized countries to meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. They can also be purchased voluntarily by people or organizations wanting to offset their carbon footprint. The first carbon credits from Uganda will be available for purchase in 2015.
Inadequate access to safe drinking water continuously threatens the health and well-being of more than a billion people, primarily in developing countries. In many areas, the central water infrastructure is not available at all, or not reliable, leading to unsafe water at the tap. In such cases, decentralized water treatment can be used.
In Uganda, around 29% of the rural population doesn’t have access to safe drinking water. Dispensers for Safe Water increases access to safe drinking water, using a proven and highly effective, low greenhouse gas emitting water purification technology: our chlorine Dispensers for Safe Water.
Dispensers for Safe Water currently provides access to sustainable safe drinking water services to about two million people across three countries at no cost to them. This reach will extend to four million by the end of this year, and reach 25 million by 2018.
Scaling up this program takes new and innovative financing approaches. This is where carbon credits come in. They help us achieve our dual commitments to sustainable services and zero user fees with revenue from carbon crediting. You can learn more about this method here where we describe our work in Kenya where we are already certified under the Gold Standard.
We are proud to be officially certified, and thank the amazing Dispensers for Safe Water team in Uganda for helping make this happen with their extraordinary work, and our partner, the South Pole Carbon’s International Water Purification Programme.
Here’s to sustainable, safe, and green water purification for millions of people.
