Virridy has partnered with Water Mission to expand reliable access to safe drinking water across rural communities, refugee settlements, and disaster-affected areas in Tanzania using solar-powered pumping and treatment systems. Water Mission established its Tanzania country program in October 2013 as its 10th country program worldwide — and has since served nearly 1.2 million Tanzanians across three offices in Dar es Salaam, Kasulu (Kigoma Region), and Dodoma.
Water Mission’s approach combines solar-powered boreholes and piped distribution networks with community management models that ensure systems remain functional for decades after initial installation. The organization has earned Charity Navigator’s four-star rating for 18 consecutive years — a distinction held by less than 1% of rated charities — reflecting the operational discipline applied to every project.
Carbon credit revenue, generated under Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG) methodology, is reinvested into the same communities that generated the credits and into new projects across Tanzania. The program launched in 2021 with seven Tanzanian communities; 18 are now Gold Standard-certified, with more than 70,000 credits under audit for issuance.
Water Mission was founded in 2001 by engineer George Greene and his wife Molly after Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras in 1998. George designed water treatment systems that had no off-the-shelf equivalent; he and Molly demonstrated their safety by drinking the treated water from what local people called “the River of Death.” They subsequently sold their engineering company and used the proceeds to launch the organization.
Since 2001, Water Mission has served more than 8 million people in 60 countries. Tanzania became the 10th country program in October 2013 — chosen strategically because it “bridges the geographical gap between our existing programs in Malawi, Kenya, and Uganda.” Will Furlong, Senior Director for Africa, established the program and has lived and worked in Dar es Salaam since. Country Director Kagunda Chege leads daily operations from the Tanzania headquarters in Dar es Salaam.
Water Mission employs layered community management models ranging from standard community-managed systems to its TradeWater program (for communities needing greater organizational support), Community Managed Plus, and Rural Water Cooperative structures — matching governance intensity to community capacity to ensure water systems remain functional for decades.
Tanzania’s water crisis is severe even by Sub-Saharan African standards. More than two-thirds of the population lacks safely managed drinking water, and up to 70% of the national health budget is spent addressing preventable WASH-related diseases. This creates both a humanitarian imperative and a large pool of avoided emissions that carbon markets can monetize to fund solutions.
Water Mission’s flagship solar water project in western Tanzania, and the first named community in the carbon credit program. Nearly 23,000 people receive water through 35 access points connected by 15 km of distribution pipe.
A $6M Poul Due Jensen (Grundfos) Foundation project — described as “the single biggest project in the Foundation’s history” — targeting 31 villages in Kigoma with solar-powered boreholes and AQtap prepaid intelligent water dispensers.
In fall 2015, Water Mission deployed water systems to Nyarugusu in under three weeks after a UNHCR/UNICEF request. The project eventually scaled to serve 250,000 Congolese and Burundian refugees across three camps — then the world’s largest solar water project.
A January 2024 Coca-Cola Foundation grant of $1 million funds a two-year safe water program in Bahi and Chamwino Districts (Tanzania) and Luuka and Buyende Districts (Uganda). Target: 53,000+ people across the combined program.
Every major Water Mission system in Tanzania is solar-powered, eliminating diesel fuel costs and the emissions that would otherwise be used in water treatment. Grundfos SP-series submersible pumps paired with variable-frequency Grundfos Renewable Solar Inverters run at optimal flow across varying solar conditions.
Rather than single communal standpipes, Water Mission builds piped systems with multiple distributed tap stands and household connections. The Makere system runs 15 km of pipe to 35 access points — ensuring no community member has to walk more than a few minutes to reach safe water.
Passive erosion chlorinators at each storage tank continuously dose distributed water with measured chlorine. The technology requires no power, no operator intervention, and no calibration — providing residual disinfection protection at the point of storage.
In Kigoma host communities, AQtap intelligent water dispensers accept WaterCard prepaid payment, ensuring equitable access and creating a transparent cost-recovery mechanism for maintenance. Data from each dispenser flows to centralized dashboards for system performance monitoring.
Water Mission uses tTEM towed transient electromagnetic technology developed at Aarhus University to map groundwater in Kigoma Region’s geologically complex terrain before drilling. This dramatically increases borehole success rates and reduces the cost of failed wells.
Virridy’s Lume IoT sensors and satellite-connected gateways provide continuous water delivery data across the network. This real-time stream enables Gold Standard digital MRV — replacing costly periodic manual surveys with objective, continuous evidence of water delivery for carbon credit issuance.
Water Mission launched its carbon credit program in Tanzania in 2021, beginning with seven projects. The mechanism is straightforward: in rural Tanzania, most households treat drinking water by boiling it over wood or charcoal fires. When a solar-powered piped water system eliminates that practice, the avoided fuelwood combustion becomes a quantifiable, verifiable greenhouse gas reduction.
The methodology also incorporates suppressed demand — crediting avoided emissions for communities that currently drink untreated, unsafe water because they cannot afford the fuel to boil it. These represent the fuelwood that would have been burned if those households had the means to treat their water. Together, the two pathways generate Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG) credits verified by independent auditors.
By 2025, 18 Tanzanian communities have achieved Gold Standard certification under the program. More than 70,000 credits are currently under audit for issuance, and the program has already passed a milestone of 15,320 equivalent tonnes of CO&sub2; avoided. All credit revenue is reinvested into the same communities and into new projects — providing a self-sustaining financial model for long-term operations.