TerraCare Project

Drinking water for all – 4 provinces of Southern Laos

Miss V. lives in a remote village in Thateng district, Sekong province. She says, “Before, my family was in poor health, but now that I have latrines and a water filter, my family is healthier and leads a much more practical life”. Unfortunately, many people in Laos are less fortunate than Ms. V. A recent study found that 89 percent of rural households drink water contaminated with E. coli bacteria, which can cause serious outbreaks of diarrhea and other serious infections (UNDP Laos Progress Report 2018), and that only 48 percent use improved sanitation facilities.

The TerraCare project was born to help solve these problems. TerraClear, a local social enterprise producing and selling water filters, and SFE will join forces to provide clean drinking water and promote the construction and use of latrines to 10,000 of the most vulnerable families in southern Laos. The project will build on TerraClear’s normal activity: visiting villages and selling their water filters, offering a 6-month payment plan that allows the company to ensure that the filter is actually used by the family. A project team will precede the sales team and provide vouchers to the poorest families in the community. These people will then be able to participate in the sale and buy a (subsidized) filter with their entire community, a very good way to give them dignity and a sense of worth! Collecting money over 6 months will be an opportunity to build a relationship with the family and to teach them the dangers of open defecation, unsafe water consumption and lack of hygiene.

Objectives

Overall impact of the project

Drinking water consumption is possible for everyone
Adoption of health-promoting behaviors in the areas of drinking water consumption, use of appropriate sanitation facilities, and hand-washing.
Inclusion of the poor in community life
Decrease in CO2 emissions due to the use of firewood for boiling water
Decrease in women’s work (wood gathering)
A local actor takes charge of health actions in a large region of Laos.

Local partner

TerraClear, a local company with a social purpose specialized in the manufacture and distribution of water filters.

When clean water change lives – TerraClear

This project is supported in France by these two local public agencies : Agence de l’eau Rhône Méditerranée Corse and Région Bourgogne Franche-Comté

You can contribute!

You can sponsor a family up to 41 € (amount subsidized by the project for a filter).
A filter, made locally by TerraClear with clay and rice husk, costs €46 (of which €5 paid by the family over 6 months and the rest subsidized by the project). This is much less expensive than the other options (bottled water, boiling).
It offers efficient water treatment by mechanical filtration; it is light and transportable.
Health impact: reduction of water-related diseases by half, as well as respiratory diseases by reducing smoke in homes where water is boiled.
Social impact: reduction of the effort required to obtain drinking water. Improves in particular the lives of children and women.
Environmental impact: 1 filter saves 1.4 tons of wood used by the household each year. The filter does not require any energy source and thus promotes the conservation of the local forest.

Giving

Une création Sandro Matera et Benoit Maigret

	Strengthening the development project management capacities of the local partner TerraClear
	Provide access to drinking water to the poorest by distributing subsidized filters and providing training in filter maintenance.
	Reduce the risks of infection related to the consumption of non-potable water
	Improve villagers’ knowledge of hygiene, primary health care (use of latrines, hand washing)