BRAC BRINGS WATER TO 

PEOPLE IN NEED

BRAC Brings Water to PeopleIn the year 1972, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed founded BRAC in Bangladesh. The organization started as a “small relief effort,” eventually becoming a leading global nonprofit. The key mission of the organization is to help people living in poverty around the world. Whether this means tackling illiteracy, health impacts or social injustices, the organization has several programs aimed at reducing the effects of poverty. These goals are reached by implementing proven plans to tackle poverty. BRAC strongly believes in empowering people and communities with the skills and resources to break cycles of poverty and transform their own lives. In 2017, 785 million people around the world did not have access to simple water services. To address this issue, BRAC brings water to people in need through its programs.

Positive Impacts on WASH

BRAC focuses on the issues of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) because the organization understands that these factors contribute to the growth and development of societies. These three necessities are often lacking in impoverished countries. The efforts of BRAC have allowed a total of 2.66 million people to now have access to safe drinking water. By establishing appropriate water technologies for area-specific geohydrological needs, BRAC brings water to people in need. More than 6,000 secondary schools around the world now have access to hygiene facilities and proper hygiene education. Additionally, BRAC has made hygienic and safe latrines available for more than 44 million people around the world.

BRAC and Hydro Industries Partnership

In 2019, BRAC and Hydro Industries entered into a partnership. Past water access solutions have often not considered the fact that the groundwater in Bangladesh is contaminated with arsenic, making it unsafe for people to drink. Hydro Industries provides technological solutions to address such problems. BRAC’s history of proven and effective plans will strengthen this effort.

Hydro Industries asserts that “Passing an electric current through contaminated water” separates and filters contaminants “so that the water emerging from the tap meets the highest possible standards” as the World Health Organisation lays out. The first phase of the collaborative effort between BRAC and Hydro Industries aimed to bring water access to 25,000 people in Bangladesh. The first phase also informs future phases and helps to broaden the scale and impact of efforts.

Hydro Industries’ systems will be extremely helpful to the people in Bangladesh. The systems will provide Bangladeshi people with 40,000 liters of purified water every day. Nick Virr, program director of BRAC United Kingdom, tells BusinessLive that Hydro’s “extensive experience, innovation and high-quality solutions” combined with BRAC’s knowledge of issues and needs “can deliver sustainable improvements in people’s lives at the scale needed.”

Reducing Global Poverty

BRAC and Hydro Industries have already achieved success in their respective areas of work. Their partnership will allow BRAC and Hydro Industries to complement each other and work toward achieving the goal of clean water for all. Since water and poverty are linked, addressing global water access essentially means addressing global poverty.

– Jacob. E. Lee
Photo: Flickr