ClimatePartner logo

Safe drinking water for Ugandan families


Uganda, Spouts
ClimatePartner ID: 1154
Clean drinking waterGet to know the project

In Uganda, fourty million people lack access to a clean source of water. This leads to health, social, economic and environmental problems. To make water safe for drinking, most families boil it, using wood, charcoal or other biomass which puts pressure on forests. Many people are unaware of the health risks and continue to drink unsafe water. Water borne illnesses like diarrhea are a leading cause of death for children under the age of five, exceeding deaths from either malaria or AIDS.

To help address these challenges, the Spouts project has developed an innovative business approach. It manufactures and distributes the so-called Purifaaya ceramic water filters to low income families, allowing them to purify and disinfect drinking water at home. The filters eliminate 99.9 percent of bacteria and can hold 20 liters of water. They are an affordable, effective, sustainable and easy to use solution for providing safe water. One filter costs 25 USD and lasts up to 5 years. A specific XL model has been created and is used at schools and in refugee. The project aims to reach 5 million Ugandans, or 14 percent of the population, by 2025.

Project Standard
The project contributes to the the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
How does technology for clean drinking water help fight global warming?

According to UNICEF, 2.2 billion people worldwide lack reliable access to safe and clean drinking water – 26% of the global population. Women and girls often must travel long distances to collect water from the nearest water point. To make the water safe for use, it is typically boiled over open fires using wood, which generates carbon emissions and harmful smoke. Additionally, the collection of firewood contributes to deforestation. 

Climate projects for clean drinking water offer practical solutions. Water can be treated chemically (e.g., with chlorine-based purifiers), mechanically (e.g., with water filters), or through tapping groundwater from wells. For this, wells must be repaired, maintained, or newly installed, as only functioning wells provide clean drinking water. These solutions grant even remote villages access to safe water. 

Such projects also reduce carbon emissions by eliminating the need to boil water and help combat deforestation. The clean drinking water projects in ClimatePartner's portfolio are registered with international standards. 

The project aims to contribute to these United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Project facts

Climate projects generally fall into one of three groups: carbon reduction, carbon removal, or carbon avoidance. Carbon reduction projects reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by a specific activity (e.g., improved cookstoves). Carbon removal projects remove carbon from the atmosphere by sequestering it in carbon sinks (e.g., reforestation). Carbon avoidance projects avoid greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere (e.g., protecting forests from deforestation with REDD+ projects).

All climate projects are based on international standards. They set processes and requirements which carbon projects must fulfill to be recognised as a proven method of reducing carbon emissions.

Climate projects demonstrably reduce, remove, or avoid greenhouse gas emissions. This is achieved with various technologies, ranging from nature-based solutions to social impact projects and renewable energies.

Climate projects go through third-party validation and verification. Validation happens early in the project life cycle and ensures that the project design is in line with current processes and requirements. This phase often also involves field visits with on-site interviews and analyses. Auditors are accredited, impartial assessors who have to be approved as a validation and verification body (VVB) by the standards body.
ClimatePartner logo© 2025 ClimatePartner GmbH
Follow us
InstagramNewsletterLinkedin