Water is Basic
Mission: To ensure every person in South Sudan has access to clean water.
Water is Basic, through the Women’s Well Repair Initiative, is working to ensure every person in South Sudan has access to clean water. Because the water crisis is best solved by those most impacted by it, women, we are training women well mechanics to run independent businesses, turning water back on for thousands of villages in South Sudan. By 2030, South Sudan will have reliable access to clean water—maintained not by outside aid, but by the people themselves. Our work focuses on restoring reliable water access and strengthening communities. We aren’t building a nonprofit—we’re eliminating the need for one.
Maria. Mother. Student. Mechanic.
She walks for water.
She studies at night.
She fixes pumps at dawn.
She is what hope looks like.
In South Sudan, access to water isn’t just about infrastructure—it’s about people like Maria, who rise early and stay late, making sure her children and her community survive. When she couldn’t go to school as a girl, she stayed home and helped. When she had children, she kept helping. And now? She’s a certified pump mechanic, fixing the very wells that hold the future of her village.
Maria is not alone. She is one of hundreds of women trained to maintain clean water systems. She is part of a movement. She is part of the solution.
This is why Water is Basic invests in local leaders. Because when women like Maria are equipped and empowered, everything changes:
— Girls go to school.
— Families stay healthy.
— Communities thrive.
When you give, when you care, you are standing with women like Maria. You are part of this movement too.
Financials
Programs
Women's Well Repair Initiative
Women’s Well Repair Initiative (WWRI) is a locally led program that trains, equips, and supports women as professional well repair mechanics in South Sudan. Women-led teams restore and maintain broken water points, bringing reliable access to clean water back to communities while creating sustainable livelihoods for women. By 2030, WWRI aims to train and equip women-led well repair teams in all 10 states of South Sudan, building a nationwide, sustainable water infrastructure led by local women.
Volunteering + Events
Thirst No More: 20-Year Celebration
Water is Basic will celebrate 20 years of impact at Thirst No More, a special fundraising auction held at Arlington Hall in Dallas, TX on April 23, 2026. This milestone evening will honor two decades of restoring access to clean water and look ahead to the work still to come.
Save the date!
Tickets go on sale February 1, 2026 at waterisbasic.org.