Kelly Stefanski

As a global community, we know that sufficient, safe, and continuously available drinking water is important for human health, development, and well-being. The UN has defined Sustainable Development Goal Six target 6.1, which calls for the “availability and sustainable management of drinking water and sanitation for all”. With a global population expected to grow by an additional 1.2 billion people, the demand for clean drinking water increases.
Over the last 15 years, AguaClara Cornell, a team out of Cornell University that focuses on drinking water research and international development, has created next-generation water treatment technologies that are gravity-powered, cost effective, locally-built, and easy to operate. To date, AguaClara technologies serve over 70,000 people clean drinking water in Honduras, Nicaragua, and India.AguaClara uses a multistakeholder approach, based on a philosophy of empowerment and engagement, to develop sustainable water treatment and water management systems. Stakeholders include end-user communities, local water authorities, national governments, international NGOs, donor governments, philanthropists, and academic institutions. Stakeholders openly share knowledge and collaboratively problem-solve to make AguaClara systems more resilient and reliable.
Introducing safe, reliable water supply infrastructure to a community for the first time has a transformative effect. Adults have more productive working days, and children attend school more often. Women and girls especially are liberated from hours spent walking to collect water for the household. The benefits of having clean drinking water ripple through every aspect of life, promoting gender equality, strengthening the earning potential of communities, and enabling individuals to fulfill the future they envision for themselves. Water is life. Engineering is love. AguaClara is hope.