What We Do

Water Businesses

Water Businesses

For the past nine years, Saha Global has worked exclusively in the Northern Region of Ghana, where we have launched 134 water businesses that provide safe drinking water to over 50,000 people.

Saha water entrepreneurs use local products to treat contaminated water from their local community sources and make it safe to drink. They then sell this water at an affordable price to members of their community. Saha Global does not drill wells or use imported pumps that can, and often do, break down. All of the water is transported by hand from the dugout, treated by hand in the village and then carried home by the consumer. 100% of the revenue from the water businesses stays in the community and is managed by the women entrepreneurs, and is used to cover the cost of the water treatment materials and to compensate the entrepreneurs for their work. Click through the picture gallery below to learn more about the treatment processes currently in use at the water businesses in Ghana.

First, women fetch water from their local surface water source, called a dugout. In most rural communities in northern Ghana, people have no other option but to to drink this fecally contaminated water.

The women then fill three 200-liter drums with the turbid dugout water that they collected.

They then use alum to remove the particles from the water, leaving the it clear. Alum is a coagulant, which causes suspended particles to clump together and sink.

Next, the women scoop the clear, settled water from the 200-liter drums into a polytank. This tank is where the water is disinfected with chlorine and stored.

One chlorine tablet treats 200 liters of clear water. For each blue drum that the women scoop into the polytank, they add one chlorine tablet.

The women sell the clean drinking water to their community for a small fee. They make enough revenue to cover the cost of running the business while earning a profit. The community works with the women to determine an affordable price. The average water price in Saha’a partner communities is 3 cents per 20 liters of water.

Saha Global Field Reps distribute Safe Storage Containers to every family in the community. These 20-liter buckets have a lid and a tap, which helps to prevent water re-contamination in the home.

After purchasing the clean water, customers walk home with their full Safe Storage Container. In most of our partner communities, people walk less than half a mile to the water treatment center. As Fuseini Yili, a customer in Chongashe, put it, “We have seen changes in our health—especially with the children. They no longer have stomach problems like diarrhea anymore.”

People store the water in their home where it is shared with the whole family. One Safe Storage Container provides enough drinking water for 2-5 days depending on the size of the family.