NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Let us imagine this: Free, clean drinking water available for the masses, twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year. Statistics, reports and various articles are constant reminders of how the lack of clean drinking water is pervasive in Bangladesh. Thousands of lives are lost annually as a consequence of water borne diseases like diarrhea and cholera. In Dhaka, this densely populated capital city, hundreds and thousands of people belonging to lower income households have very little or no access to clean drinking water.

Footsteps, a youth empowered social enterprise based in Dhaka, is working with their many youth volunteers and private sector organisations to create a simple platform through which people all over this bustling city can have access to clean drinking water for free.

Project Trishna, a social venture by Footsteps, is a project that creates free access to clean drinking water for the general public by setting up water filters in targeted areas of the city. This is done by privatising the use of water filtration systems and allowing private enterprises to maintain these filters as  part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The role that these private enterprises play in the success of this project is unparalleled.