Virridy has partnered with Amazi Water, Burundi's leading rural water access organization, to expand clean drinking water access through carbon finance. The partnership implements solar-powered borehole water supply systems across rural communities and small towns throughout Burundi, reaching 2.5 million people across more than 1,100 active systems.
Carbon credits are generated by eliminating both actual fuelwood combustion by households that currently boil water, and suppressed demand — the millions of families who drink contaminated, untreated water because they cannot afford the fuel to boil it safely. Both sources of avoided emissions are quantified under Gold Standard methodology GS 429 v1.0 and generate certified carbon credits whose recurring revenue directly funds system operations, preventive maintenance, and network expansion.
This initiative is central to Burundi's national universal water access plan. In February 2021, President Évariste Ndayishimiye formally authorized Amazi Water to operate across all provinces and directed provincial administrators to facilitate site access — making Amazi Water the only foreign-led NGO with a blanket national operating mandate in the country.
Amazi Water was founded in 2004 by a group of engineers and public health practitioners who recognized that Burundi's endemic poverty and lack of reliable energy made conventional grid-connected water infrastructure unworkable for most communities. The organization's name means water in Kirundi, the national language.
Over the following two decades, Amazi Water developed and refined a standardized model: a deep borehole (averaging 65 meters) drilled to reach clean groundwater, equipped with a Grundfos SQFlex solar-powered submersible pump, connected to an elevated storage tank, and distributed through communal taps or household connections. The model requires no fuel, no grid connection, and minimal parts — a maintenance team of locally-trained technicians can service the entire network at a cost of $1.37 per person per year.
By 2024, the network spanned all 18 provinces of Burundi, with 1,100+ active systems supplying water to an estimated 2.5–3 million people — roughly 20–25% of the national population. The organization holds a 97% rating from Charity Navigator and has received the GlobalGiving Superstar designation for seven consecutive years.
Each borehole is fitted with a Grundfos SQFlex submersible pump driven entirely by photovoltaic panels. The SQFlex line is designed for variable solar input, running at reduced flow on cloudy days and at full capacity in direct sun, eliminating battery banks and the corrosion and replacement costs they bring.
Amazi Water drills to an average depth of 65 meters to reach clean, protected aquifers below the zones of surface contamination that make shallow wells and springs unreliable in Burundi's densely-farmed hillside terrain. Every new borehole is tested for bacteriological and chemical quality before commissioning.
Under Gold Standard Pilot 14 (approved September 4, 2025), Virridy's Lume IoT sensors are being integrated across the network to provide continuous digital measurement, reporting, and verification (dMRV) of water delivery volumes and system uptime — replacing periodic manual surveys with real-time data.
The system architecture is deliberately simple: pump, riser pipe, storage tank, distribution lines. Locally-trained technicians carry a small inventory of standardized spare parts. This design philosophy keeps the $1.37 per-person annual operating cost achievable even in remote areas without road access.
Amazi Water operates in all 18 Burundian provinces with provincial government co-ordinators assigned at each level. The presidential mandate of February 2021 removed the need for site-by-site permitting, cutting the time from borehole identification to community handover from months to weeks.
Household water use surveys, pump flow logs, and system uptime records are combined with Gold Standard's suppressed-demand methodology to calculate annual emission reductions. Virridy's digital MRV layer reduces audit costs and increases the credibility and frequency of verification events.
"This partnership with Virridy represents a breakthrough in how we fund long-term water access. Carbon finance gives us a recurring revenue stream that is tied directly to the communities we serve — the more water we deliver reliably, the stronger the carbon signal. It aligns our incentives perfectly with sustainability."
Jake Kidane, Chief Operating Officer, Amazi Water — September 2025
Virridy's Lume IoT platform brings continuous digital measurement, reporting, and verification (dMRV) to Amazi Water's Burundi network. On September 4, 2025, Gold Standard formally approved Virridy as Pilot 14 under its digital MRV framework — authorizing the use of sensor-based water delivery data to support carbon credit issuance under GS 429 v1.0.
Traditional MRV for safe-water projects relies on periodic household surveys and manual pump-log readings, which are expensive, infrequent, and subject to recall bias. Lume sensors installed at each borehole and storage tank measure cumulative flow and system uptime continuously, uploading data over cellular networks to Virridy's cloud platform where it is processed and made available for real-time audit.
The digital layer reduces third-party verification costs, enables higher-frequency credit issuance, and provides project stakeholders — including Amazi Water's donors and carbon credit buyers — with transparent, near-real-time evidence of impact.
President Évariste Ndayishimiye personally authorized Amazi Water to operate across all 18 provinces of Burundi and instructed provincial-level administrators to actively facilitate site identification, land access, and community coordination. This makes Amazi Water the only foreign-led organization in the country with a blanket national operating mandate — a recognition of its two decades of demonstrated impact.
Amazi Water's network is formally incorporated into Burundi's national plan for universal water access. The organization contributes data and progress reports to the Ministry of Water, Hydraulics and Sanitation, and its systems count toward the government's SDG 6 commitments. The carbon finance model pioneered by the Virridy partnership is being studied by the ministry as a replicable funding mechanism for future infrastructure expansion.