Aquaya

Aquaya We answer your Toughest Water and Sanitation Questions 💦 🦠 🚽

Aquaya's supporters and clients include:

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Google.org
The Mulago Foundation
The Open Square Foundation
The P&G Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation
The Lemelson Foundation
The Asian Development Bank
The International Finance Corporation
UNICEF
World Health Organization (WHO)
Samaritan’s Purse

What does it take to train the next generation of water leaders?Through the Africa Water Quality Testing Fellowship, you...
06/05/2026

What does it take to train the next generation of water leaders?

Through the Africa Water Quality Testing Fellowship, young professionals are gaining hands-on experience in water quality testing, data analysis, and community engagement.

For Fellows such as Angel Uwera, Stellah Nakirijja, and Cecilia Nansiimbi, the program served as a pathway from Makerere University classrooms to meaningful work with Whave, advancing access to safe water across Uganda.

Their stories demonstrate that sustainable water services depend on infrastructure, local talent development, hands-on training, and ongoing professional growth.

Read the full story Conrad N. Hilton Foundation - https://www.hiltonfoundation.org/news/from-the-classroom-to-communities-ugandas-next-generation-of-water-professionals/

What does a handpump mean to the people who depend on it every day?Aquayans Allan, Diane, and Sydney visited Nyabusenyi ...
06/04/2026

What does a handpump mean to the people who depend on it every day?

Aquayans Allan, Diane, and Sydney visited Nyabusenyi Village in Kabarole District, Uganda. They talked with data collectors, group members, water point caretakers, and local leaders as part of preparing for the midline data collection for the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) study.

The study evaluates the impact of Village Savings and Loan Associations on payments for handpump maintenance and community WASH behaviors. Before any data collection is scaled up, these conversations must first take place within the community, with the people who know their water realities best.

WaterTRACS I mapped Uganda's water quality💧🇺🇬 WaterTRACS II does something with the findings.Aquaya's Rawlings and Patri...
06/03/2026

WaterTRACS I mapped Uganda's water quality💧🇺🇬 WaterTRACS II does something with the findings.

Aquaya's Rawlings and Patricia traveled to Fort Portal City, Uganda, for the WaterTRACS II kick-off, launching a new phase of our water quality management program focused on real-world impact.

At the center of this phase: a partnership with the Mid-Western Umbrella of Water and Sanitation, a rural water utility, to build a sustainable water quality management system that works at the utility level.

The kick-off brought together a strong coalition of stakeholders, including representatives from:
IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, Albert Water Management Zone, Red Cross Rwenzori Region, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), Rural Water and Sanitation Resource Center (RWSRC), and the Water Utility Regulatory Department.

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

Water quality decisions don't happen in the field alone, they happen in rooms like this one. 🏛️💧Aquaya facilitated the f...
06/01/2026

Water quality decisions don't happen in the field alone, they happen in rooms like this one. 🏛️💧

Aquaya facilitated the first quarterly high-level meeting in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya, under the Water Quality Assurance Fund program.

Seated around the table are the County Executive Committee Member for Water County Government of Uasin Gishu, Managing Director of Uasin Gishu County Rural Water and Sanitation Company. , Technical Manager, Sub-County Engineers, County Compliance Officers, and the Eldoret Water and Sanitation Co. Ltd (ELDOWA)S lab team.

Together, the group reviewed water quality results from the past quarter and mapped out strategies to uphold and improve performance going forward.

Aquaya, in collaboration with Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), provided professional water-quality testing training t...
05/27/2026

Aquaya, in collaboration with Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), provided professional water-quality testing training to district assembly staff in Asutifi North and Wassa East, Ghana.

The participants gained hands-on skills in water sample collection and in testing pH, turbidity, and free chlorine residual, as well as microbial analysis using three methods, including the Compartment Bag Test and membrane filtration.

The sessions were led by Aquayans Meseret Dessalegne and Afua Gyaama Kissi Ampomah, co-facilitated by Andy Sadique (GWCL Sunyani) in Asutifi North and Nicholas Okyere (GWCL Cape Coast) in Wassa East.

Participants from both districts acknowledge that their knowledge in water quality testing has improved significantly from pre-training to post-training?

NEW PUBLICATION in PLOS Water 📄Satisfaction and willingness-to-pay for water services in rural northern Ghana: Do we nee...
05/26/2026

NEW PUBLICATION in PLOS Water 📄Satisfaction and willingness-to-pay for water services in rural northern Ghana: Do we need intermediary steps toward safely managed services?

"Safely managed" water must be clean, close, and available when needed. In rural Ghana, fewer than 16% of households have it, with progress worse in the north, and the 2030 SDG deadline fast approaching.

So what comes next? Push directly toward that goal, or pursue intermediate steps?

This study surveyed 1,748 households across 120 rural communities to assess satisfaction with current services and willingness to pay for improvements. Satisfaction with existing water services was associated with source type, accessibility, availability, and perceived safety. Households were willing to pay 3.6–4.9× more for on-premises treated water than for distant untreated water.

The study proposes a new "proximate access" category based on household preferences, giving funders and policymakers a clearer framework for prioritizing investments between basic and safely managed services.

Link in bio to read the full paper here!

This small bag can help you quickly detect contamination or E.coli in drinking water. 🧪At the GiveWell Chlorination Moni...
05/26/2026

This small bag can help you quickly detect contamination or E.coli in drinking water. 🧪

At the GiveWell Chlorination Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) training in Abuja and Nairobi, participants learned how to conduct a Compartment Bag Test (CBT), a reliable field method for detecting E. coli in drinking water.

This is how it works: sampled water goes into a Whirl-Pack bag, gets mixed with a reagent, and is distributed across 5 compartments in the compartment bag.

After incubation, the color tells the story;
🟡 Yellow means E.coli undetetcted.
🟢🔵 Greenish blue means E. coli detected.

Three sample types are collected daily, a test sample, a duplicate, and a blank, to keep results accurate and accountable.


UNICEF Rhema Care Hanovia Limited Evidence Action IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

Many rural water systems in Ghana struggle to secure funding. This is not due to a lack of merit, but rather to a lack o...
05/22/2026

Many rural water systems in Ghana struggle to secure funding. This is not due to a lack of merit, but rather to a lack of robust data management systems necessary to support funding applications. 📊

Aquaya's research across 19 rural water systems found that only 21% had high data availability. Nearly half had low data availability. Only 4 of 19 achieved full cost recovery.

To provide financial support for water systems, they need reliable data and measurable system performance using clear indicators. This is why the three-phase approach is necessary.
Phase 1: Build capacity and improve data management.
Phase 2: Benchmark performance across systems
Phase 3: Link funding to measurable outcomes.

📣 New Program: Safe drinking water involves more than microbial contamination alone. Fluoride, manganese, and nitrate ca...
05/21/2026

📣 New Program: Safe drinking water involves more than microbial contamination alone. Fluoride, manganese, and nitrate can contribute to serious chronic health risks, yet in many low-resource settings, they remain difficult to monitor routinely.

Why? Laboratory testing can cost $50+ per sample, while existing field-friendly approaches have shown important performance limitations during independent validation studies, particularly for fluoride detection.

Aquaya is partnering with Droplytix to engineer a purpose-built test strip and smartphone-based interpretation system designed specifically for water service providers in low- and middle-income countries, with field validation planned in Kenya.

The goal: a practical, low-cost screening tool to help identify potential chemical risks in drinking water supplies.

🔬 Funded by GiveWell

Great to have Aquayan Caroline all the way from France in Accra with the Ghana team this week! 🇬🇭 Suzzy, Stanley and Afu...
05/21/2026

Great to have Aquayan Caroline all the way from France in Accra with the Ghana team this week! 🇬🇭 Suzzy, Stanley and Afua.

Address

San Anselmo, CA

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Aquaya posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Aquaya:

Shortcuts

Share

Category