With its Clean Water Foundation, Georg Fischer has been involved since 2002 in projects to improve water supply in developing countries and disaster areas. Since then, GF has donated over CHF 5 million to the Foundation and has thus funded the implementation of more than 70 projects in 40 countries on four continents. 

In the year under review, seven projects were completed. Five new projects – in Indonesia, Brazil, Tajikistan, southern Sudan and Bangladesh – received around CHF 350,000 in financing. In all projects, the aim is for experienced partners to support the local population in its efforts to sustainably im-prove its supply of drinking water. GF continues to donate a substantial sum to the Foundation every year.

Clean Water supports the construction of water tanks

In Nicaragua, the Georg Fischer Clean Water Foundation is supporting the Nuevas Esperanzas development project. The project‘s goal is to collect valuable rain water and promote sustainable agriculture. One reason that the region suffers from a lack of water is that it rains seldom, but then it pours. In the past, the farmers collected the water in small containers, but there was never enough. The development organization Nuevas Esperanzas and the Clean Water Foundation have changed that. 

The supply is now kept in large new community water tanks. With support from Clean Water, five large rainwater tanks, each with a capacity of 40,000 litres, were built in the region in 2009. In addition, five large families each received one such tank, and eleven families each a smaller 20,000 litre tank.

Reforestation is being actively promoted, and the farmers are being shown  methods of sustainable farming. The latest project is beekeeping, practised without setting fire to the trees in which the wild bees live. For the local farmers, the project is more than an improvement in living conditions. When asked about the changes that the water tanks have meant, they stress how the project has fostered a sense of community and how their self- respect has grown as a result of their hands-on involvement in the construction work.