Aquaya

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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

A hotline for complaints is the most common way water providers engage customers.Across 16 countries, the studies show t...
10/22/2026

A hotline for complaints is the most common way water providers engage customers.

Across 16 countries, the studies show three ways utilities engage customers, but not equally.
📢 Informing: hotlines, radio, and printed reports are the most common.
💬 Consulting: committees and public meetings come next.
👥 Decision-making: planning with customers and citizen score cards show up least, and are typically one-off events at project set-up or for utility reform.

Nearly all of it began with a donor or NGO, not the utility.

Learn more - https://aquaya.org/customer-service-in-the-water-sector/

We're heading to the UNC Water and Health Conference 2026 with a full slate of 9 sessions.On the agenda: water quality f...
10/21/2026

We're heading to the UNC Water and Health Conference 2026 with a full slate of 9 sessions.

On the agenda: water quality findings from Ghana, Uganda, and Ethiopia, AI tools for water security, and how evidence moves into policy and practice.

Come say hello, join the conversation, and connect with us!

Evidence Action Millennium Water Alliance

📣 Now Evaluating: When neighbors pool their savings to fix a handpump, does the water in their homes get safer too?GiveW...
10/20/2026

📣 Now Evaluating: When neighbors pool their savings to fix a handpump, does the water in their homes get safer too?

GiveWell is co-funding an expansion of Aquaya's randomized controlled trial in Kabarole District, Uganda. The study looks at Village Savings and Loan Associations, groups of neighbors who save, lend, and manage funds for handpump repairs.

The original trial, supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, measures what happens at the handpump. GiveWell's support takes the research into 600 households to look at:
💧 Drinking water quality
🏠 Household water security
💰 Savings, borrowing, and investment
🗣️ Women's voice in household and community decisions

A glass of water can look perfectly clear and still carry bacteria.Student fellows at Bahir Dar Institute of Technology ...
10/19/2026

A glass of water can look perfectly clear and still carry bacteria.

Student fellows at Bahir Dar Institute of Technology (BiT) in Ethiopia, involved in the Africa Water Quality Testing Fellowship, are building practical skills in water quality research. The students were taught how to:
✅ Survey households using structured questionnaires on the mWater app
✅ Collect samples from household taps
✅ Test water quality on site
✅ Count and record microbial results after incubation

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

What does it take to train the next generation of water quality professionals?We are partnering with Kwame Nkrumah Unive...
10/15/2026

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

We are partnering with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) for the Africa Water Quality Testing Fellowship in Ghana, which will provide undergraduate students with the practical skills needed to monitor the quality of drinking water.

This initiative combines Aquaya’s technical expertise with KNUST’s academic experience to prepare the next generation of water quality professionals through hands-on laboratory work, fieldwork, water sampling, and interactive learning. Students will gain practical experience that complements classroom teaching and prepares them to contribute to stronger water quality monitoring systems.

We look forward to working with the team Dr. Godwin Armstrong Duku, Prof Kwabena Nyarko Biritwum, Dr. Eugene Appiah-Effah, Prof Richard Boamah, Dr. Barbara Gyapong-Korsah, Raphael Osei Asante, Emmanuel Botchway, Charles Gyamfi to make this fellowship a valuable learning experience for students and a step toward strengthening Ghana's water-quality capacity.

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

🎧 New Podcast: Will the rains come? And how much?For a farmer in Kenya, these questions matter. But forecasts have long ...
10/14/2026

🎧 New Podcast: Will the rains come? And how much?

For a farmer in Kenya, these questions matter. But forecasts have long skipped the weeks that matter most: the stretch between tomorrow's weather and the seasonal outlook.

In our latest podcast episode, Jeff Albert talks with Chris Funk of the Climate Hazards Center and Phillip Okello Ochieng of the Kenya Meteorological Department about closing that gap together.

Kenyan meteorologists set the agenda. County forecasters asked for 45-day outlooks broken into weekly forecasts. The tools use downscaled dynamical forecasts, blend 45 years of rainfall data with readings from low-cost 3D-printed weather stations, and deliver forecasts in local languages by text message.

Turning climate data into better water and sanitation decisions is the focus of Plenary 2, "From Satellites to Standpipes," at the UNC Water and Health Conference on October 27. See you there.

🎧 Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1vL7f06F6C2YM1hAaPigOw?si=KN9sIx1wRlyZe_pQcwyUFQ and YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaxdfguYVBM

FEWS NET

80% of water operators in the Water Quality Assurance Fund now chlorinate their water.Three years ago, many small, rural...
10/13/2026

80% of water operators in the Water Quality Assurance Fund now chlorinate their water.

Three years ago, many small, rural water systems in Ghana had no way to regularly test their own water. The cost, logistics, and access to labs just weren't there. The Water Quality Assurance Fund changed that by linking small water systems directly with urban laboratories. The impact so far;

💧 31 water systems serving ~235,000 people enrolled in the initiative.
🧪 1,200+ water quality tests conducted by local labs since 2023, paid for by water systems themselves.
🧴 Chlorination rose from 0% to 80% of operators practicing it.
📉 Microbial contamination in drinking water samples has decreased.

💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

"Two leaves and a bud." That's the rule tea pickers in Limuru, Kenya, follow: take only the newest growth, the part with...
10/08/2026

"Two leaves and a bud." That's the rule tea pickers in Limuru, Kenya, follow: take only the newest growth, the part with the most promise.

Last week, our full team learned it firsthand, with colleagues from six countries working side by side in the tea rows. It had been a while since we were all in one place, and we made it count. Full days of sessions. Even fuller conversations. Meals that ran late. A karaoke night that revealed some talents no performance review ever captured.

Our research happens across time zones and video calls. The trust that makes it work gets built around a shared table.

Here's to new growth. 🌱 Follow along to see what we build next.

📢 NEW REPORT Is a tap at home worth the investment?Households with a tap on their premises spent far less time fetching ...
10/07/2026

📢 NEW REPORT Is a tap at home worth the investment?

Households with a tap on their premises spent far less time fetching water each day than those relying on handpumps and other non-piped sources:
🇬🇭 1.8 hours in Ghana
🇿🇲 2 hours in Zambia
🇮🇳 42 minutes in Tamil Nadu, India

Women, who do most of that fetching, told us where the time goes: running households, growing businesses, tending gardens, and resting.

Does the tap pay for itself? Often, yes. Every $1 invested returned about $1.60 in Zambia and $1.20 in Ghana over 15 years, counting only the benefits we could measure. In Ghana, consistent chlorination could nearly double that.

It's the first documented cost-benefit analysis of piped water in small towns in low- and middle-income countries, drawing on 1,800+ households and 28 water systems.

Read the full report: https://aquaya.org/the-costs-and-benefits-of-piped-water-in-rural-towns-is-a-tap-at-home-worth-the-investment/

Meet "Proximate Access": a proposed new rung on the water ladder 💧In the rural northern Ghana communities we surveyed, a...
10/06/2026

Meet "Proximate Access": a proposed new rung on the water ladder 💧

In the rural northern Ghana communities we surveyed, about half of households have "basic" water access. Fewer than 2% have safely managed water. That's a big gap, with nothing in between to mark progress.

We asked 1,700+ households across 120 communities what they actually want from their water service. Their top priorities were a tap at home and chlorinated water. Without a tap, the next best thing was water within a 10-minute trip. Cutting a 30-minute trip to 20 minutes made little difference. Cutting it to 10 did.

So we propose a new step between basic and safely managed: Proximate Access. That means an improved source within 10 minutes, with water available when needed and possibly free from contamination.

Read the full paper here: https://aquaya.org/satisfaction-and-willingness-to-pay-for-water-services-in-rural-northern-ghana-do-we-need-intermediary-steps-toward-safely-managed-services/

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