Water School is a registered charity in Canada and the US. The organization was founded in 2007 by Fraser Edwards, Executive Director and CEO and Bob Dell, President and received its charitable status in 2009. Fraser worked for many years with Compassion Canada as Africa Director responsible for overseeing the implementation of development projects. Based in Kenya and Uganda at the time, Fraser saw firsthand the devastating effects of unsafe drinking water in many Africancommunities.
Bob Dell is a scientist with over 40 years experience in water treatment technology in Canada who had the opportunity to travel to Africa in 2001 where his passion for addressing clean drinking water issues was ignited. After researching appropriate water treatment technologies relevant to the African context, Bob came across the SODIS water purification system developed by Eawag in Switzerland. Through field experimentation in Uganda, Bob was able to refine this system by taking out two steps and making it more practical and user friendly. Eawag has since accepted these changes as vital and applicable.
The first Water School program was successfully implemented in Kisoro, Uganda in 2004 when Bob was working as a volunteer for another organization. The work is now spreading rapidly throughout East Africa. It enters communities through the primary school system where students are taught proper hygiene and sanitation and are introduced to the SODIS method of water treatment. It then spreads rapidly through the community as the children take what they have learned home. Water School accomplishes its mission by partnering with credible local organizations to implement their projects. This allows Water School to keep its infrastructure and overhead costs to a minimum and to utilize qualified local networks already in place.
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