Creating more inclusive and sustainable living conditions for urban populations contribute positively to communities lives.
Eau et Vie is a first response to this challenge by securing the future of their local economies and the well-being of these citizens. It operates since 2008 in the Philippines and Bangladesh.
Based on a social entrepreneurship approach, the model enables disadvantaged households to have access to potable water at home with a private tap. Mobilisation is the key to successful community empowerment. It helps to raise awareness and increase knowledge of people to influence local decision making and follow services implementation.
The founders, Valérie Dumans and Philippe de Roux, met in the Philippines while working for the UPLiFT social micro-credit programme supported by the Inter Aide association. It is by sharing the lives of the inhabitants living in the slums of Manila that it hit them: the daily reality of water issues and its exorbitant price, lock the most precarious families into a vicious circle of poverty.
Enriched with several years running a plumbing integration company in France, Philippe de Roux decided to build a solution for the urban inclusion of vulnerable urban neighbourhoods. Sharing his ambition with Valérie, the two had the idea of a model based on access to water and community mobilisation. The complementary nature of their sensibilities and know-how was the driving force behind the co-founding of the project in 2008.
In spite of the challenges and difficulties, this dream became real. Eau et Vie provides more than 52,000 inhabitants of 26 slums in the Philippines and Bangladesh with access to drinking water and complementary services.
Cities where people in deprived neighbourhoods can enjoy decent living conditions.
A CORE IDEA
Slum dwellers also deserve and can afford sustainable water supply in their homes.