Sustainability is Complicated: Here’s Why

Sustainability is Complicated

Last week I shared about our new direction designed to help 100% of the clean water reach 100% of its potential. It focuses a lot on sustainability, on going back to old systems to make sure we’re using them as best as we can, and seeing if we can extend them to reach new populations.

But one of the biggest questions I get asked is: “why can’t they just take care of the system right from the start?” It’s a great question – really! After all, if your neighbour gave you a cow, and the cow got sick (as they say in Uganda), would you expect the neighbour to pay for it?

I made a 1 min video on the topic called West Vancouver. I want you to imagine what it would be like if West Vancouver was gifted a water system one day, where they had none, and were told to govern and care for it. Oh, and in this scenario the people of West Van have a grade one literacy level, earn less than $1 a day and have a high mistrust of centralized government (ok one of those things is possibly true today). Give the video a spin here.

Sustainability is complicated, because well, humans are complicated. If it were straightforward, we would have arrived there a while ago. Thankfully our local Ugandan team is leading this so well. They’re helping us iterate and grow in our understanding of what it means to do sustainability: better.

As we grow, our vision is to become the most sustainable water charity in Canada and Uganda. To do this, we need to step off of the fundraising treadmill – just a bit more. The best way you can help with that is joining our monthly membership. It helps us spend less money on appeals, budget better, and plan to walk alongside communities for the long haul. Some studies show it helps your gift go 4x further! We have a milestone to raise $470 more (in monthly support) by the end of June, to help us make our overall goal of $15,500 by December. Our group of monthly members, The Source Supporters, is the backbone of this organization – please consider it.

I hope you like the video.

– Jeff

PS. Uganda went into its second wave lockdown a few days ago, for 42 days, due to fears of rising case counts. This has tough implications on all, but particularly the most vulnerable populations – kids and women. It’s a long slog. Our programs may be delayed, and I hope you will understand. As we in Canada begin to re-open, please remember that we’re all in the same ocean, but not the same boat. Soap and water remain the best defence against COVID and it’s what we do: best. You can give some HERE (but it’s better to join the monthly program to give it year round :).