As a small charity with a big impact, Frank Water focuses its efforts on demonstrating practical, effective delivery models for water and sanitation and then advocating to local governments to fund the scaling up of these models to help many thousands of people.
Nowhere is this more evident than in our work with our partner NGO, Samerth in the Indian State of Chhattisgarh, where we have prioritised engagement with state and local government as a key driver of change. Our focus has been to demonstrate the impact of our work, help communities to create plans for future work and advocate to the government to fund expansion and scaling up.
A meeting hosted by Frank Water in India to share knowledge on IWRM with other INGOs and Governments
We have held state level workshops and meetings, where we presented our work on water management and the use of digital data gathering and this too has been accepted as a step change in the methods available to local government and NGOs to improve water access for remote communities.
Advocacy can be more impactful than directly funding infrastructure such as taps and toilets, firstly because the government has funds far in excess of any NGO or corporation but more importantly, government oversight of water and sanitation is an essential part of their responsibility – leading to more sustainable projects, owned by local communities and their governments.
Over the last 10 years, we have leveraged over £1 million from state governments in India. By advocating for local funding, we are ensuring that local problems are finding local solutions.
