Over a billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water. While numerous technological, medical, and educational solutions have been implemented for the benefit of disadvantaged communities, there is no ‘magic bullet’. Instead, development agencies must partner directly with these communities to address their public health needs through appropriate technology solutions, backed up by education and assessment.

The Manna Energy Foundation intends to install almost 500 water treatment systems for the secondary schools in Rwanda, funding the venture with United Nations carbon credits. The revenue generated will subsidize the installations of an equal number of sanitation systems, including human waste biogas generators. This new model for hydrophilanthropy is unique in the humanitarian development field. Traditional development organizations, rely on government, UN, or charity grants, and have finite funding with specific goals for discrete projects. Instead, under this model, economic sustainability and expansion is generated only by the continued use of the installed projects. There is a direct incentive to ensure that the projects are successful, in that these same projects serve to fund further development. No longer is there a disconnect between funding and public health goals. Unlike conventional development projects dependent on one-time donor financing, this Project is designed to generate a continuing stream of income through the award and sale of carbon credits. Thus, the Project will be rewarded not for initial construction of the facilities, but for the continuing operation of the facilities over a long period. We believe this economic model — with continuing operation rather than initial deployment as the generator of funding —will ensure that our systems do not fail due to neglect.

The Manna Energy Foundation is pioneering this venture, as the first organization ever to attempt to qualify for United Nations carbon credits based on the treatment of water to address public health needs. However, Manna requires initial investment to install the first systems, which will then repay our debt, pay for operation and maintenance of the systems, and replication of this model around the world. So far, we have directly impacted approximately 3,000 people with clean water, and intend to impact 236,000 more.

Manna is accepting equity and debt investment to fund 2009 installations which will generate the carbon credits needed to repay this debt and fund subsequent installations.