800 million people in rural areas of the world lack access to drinking water. This is why 1001fontaines aims to improve the health of these people, by providing them with clean drinking water. Thanks to donations and to the support of numerous partners such as Diehl Metering, 1001fontaines wants to take action in countries where water is unsafe to drink, and provide families with access to drinking water.
How? By installing water purification stations, based on the principle of ultraviolet sterilisation, and the installation of solar panels. In order to guarantee the sustainability of its project, 1001fontaines takes an entrepreneurial approach, by fostering the creation of micro-enterprises to run the stations. This enables isolated communities to produce and sell their own purified drinking water in large water bottles, for less than one cent per litre.
Sensitive to sustainable development issues and heavily involved in the protection of natural resources, starting with water, the French company of Diehl Metering has been sponsoring 1001fontaines since 2007 by contributing to the financing of action programmes and supplying the water meters needed for managing the water treated in the stations. As part of this “skills-based sponsorship”, Diehl Metering has visited the Cambodian facilities to appreciate the quality of the service provided to the villagers and the efficiency of the systems. Technical meetings are also held for issues regarding the use and operation of the water meters. This partnership has extended as far as having 1001fontaines come to the company for a presentation led by an expert who volunteers at the NGO.
In 2015, 1001fontaines was in Cambodia during the phase of generalised deployment, with 135 stations installed. The NGO is also present on the east coast of Madagascar in the local deployment phase to set up 10 stations, as well as in India, in the pilot phase. Its association with other international NGOs enables it to deploy its model on a large scale.
