The average costs to sponsor various types of water projects are listed below. We provide overall averages because costs may vary country by country or even community by community, due to several factors including the price of local materials and equipment. We review our costs regularly to ensure the averages we list here are accurate.
If you wish to sponsor a well or other project but can't afford to do so all by yourself, we will gladly match you with other donors as co-sponsors. We also encourage you to work with your co-workers, school, extended family, local church, friends, and neighbours to organize fund-raising drives to reach one or more of the following sponsorship levels:
| Project | Sole Sponsor |
| Drill a new water well | An average $5,500 |
|
Rehabilitate an existing well, including replacing a broken hand pump and the concrete pump pad |
An average $1,500 |
| Repair a broken hand pump | An average $125 |
|
Build communal toilets |
$3,500 to $6,500 |
Notes:
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- Drill a new water well: This includes a borehole, casing and filter screen, a cement pad and Afridev hand pump. Your gift will have lasting benefits because it provides an average of 500 people with a supply of safe, easily accessible water.
- Rehabilitate an existing well; replace a broken hand pump: Rehabilitating an existing well is the fastest, cheapest way of providing safe water to a community. The fact a well has already been drilled indicates there is sufficient water, and local demand for it. Your gift will offer safe water by providing a new handpump, a sanitary cement seal and cement pad. The repaired well will be disinfected and tested to ensure it's safe!
- Repair a broken hand pump: Sometimes the only thing stopping safe, accessible water from flowing is a broken hand pump that can be easily repaired by our trained team.
- Sponsor a health & hygiene workshop: Provide men and women with the skills and training they need to help keep their families healthy. The topics include how to keep drinking water safe, how to build hand-washing stations, and how to provide critical First Aid to young children who are suffering from "running stomach" or diarrhea.
- Build community toilets: With your support, we are building communal toilets at schools, clinics, etc., then teaching villagers to build family latrines near their homes. You can stop the spread of disease at its source, and eliminate the need for children and adults to risk their safety by wandering into the bush or jungle to urinate or defecate.
- Offer a community safe water, plus sanitation and health & hygiene: By providing a well, community toilets, and community hand-washing stations, you will stop the spread of diseases that quickly claim the lives of young babies and village elders.
Other Important Sponsorship Needs
- $20,000 for a pick-up truck: Transportation is one of the main logistical problems in developing countries. Trucks are constantly loaded to the limit and need to be driven in extreme heat and over very rough roads. Without reliable transportation, our safe water drilling program grinds to a halt. Your donation will purchase sturdy, used Toyota four-wheel drive pick-up trucks to transport all our drilling equipment and supplies to the villages in need of safe drinking water. We'll ensure they are properly operated and maintained.
- $4,000 to provide required training: Equipment, trucks, and supplies alone do not provide safe drinking water. Local people need hands-on training and support from knowledgeable volunteers to effectively drill boreholes, complete wells and replace or repair hand pumps. A Liberian bishop helped dedicate the first well drilled by Lifewater in Liberia by saying "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.... Teach him to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." Help empower local people by supporting volunteers who travel overseas using their vacation time to provide required training and teaching.
