Supporting safe drinking water for more than 24 million students
CARBON FINANCE FOR SAFE WATER
Millions of households across Sub-Saharan Africa still cook with charcoal and wood. Our approach expands access to efficient cookstoves that reduce fuel use by more than 35%.
60,000+
Schools
24M+
Students
3 COUNTRIES
(Kenya, Uganda & Nigeria)
Impact Carbon develops and manages carbon programs in partnership with Impact Water, supporting one of the world's largest school-based safe drinking water programs.
Together, we combine deep carbon-market expertise with large-scale safe water delivery.
NEARLY TWO DECADES OF CARBON-FINANCED DEVELOPMENT
Impact Carbon has been developing carbon-financed climate and development programs in Africa for nearly two decades. Its early work explored how carbon finance could help scale technologies that reduce emissions while addressing fundamental development needs, including energy-efficient cooking and safe drinking water.
Impact Carbon’s safe-water carbon work dates back to early pilot programs that preceded Impact Water’s launch in Uganda in 2014. Since then, Impact Water has developed a highly scalable model focused specifically on safe drinking water in schools, while carbon finance has remained an important part of the model’s evolution and growth.
A SAFE WATER MODEL BUILT TO SCALE
Today, Impact Water partners with more than 60,000 schools serving over 24 million students across Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. The model combines partnerships with schools and governments, low-cost point-of-use water treatment, ongoing engagement with students and school staff, and data-driven operations and logistics.
Rather than relying on a single technology, Impact Water uses treatment solutions appropriate to each school’s infrastructure and needs, coupled with installation, maintenance, repair, replacement and ongoing support. This approach has reduced the annual cost of safe drinking water service to less than $0.25 per student, making large-scale—and ultimately universal—coverage an achievable goal.
CARBON PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT
Carbon finance has supported the safe-water model since its earliest years, helping make sustained service delivery more affordable and scalable alongside other sources of funding.
Impact Carbon manages the carbon programs supporting Impact Water’s eligible safe-water activities, working closely with Impact Water and specialist technical partners across the carbon project lifecycle. This includes carbon program development, monitoring and data systems, verification, issuance and carbon asset management.
Impact Water leads implementation and ongoing service delivery on the ground and plays an integral role in carbon monitoring and verification, drawing on its extensive school network, field teams and data systems. Together, the organizations combine large-scale implementation capacity with deep carbon-market experience.
CLIMATE FINANCE WITH DEVELOPMENT IMPACT
Providing safe drinking water can reduce the need to boil water using biomass fuels, generating measurable climate benefits while improving access to an essential service. The safe-water program demonstrates the broader potential of high-integrity carbon finance: translating measurable emissions reductions into funding that can help sustain and expand solutions with direct benefits for schools, students and communities.