Next Billion

Creating an Exit Strategy for Aid (Part 1): Nonprofit mWater, in striving to eliminate diarrheal disease, runs like a for-profit Silicon Valley startup

Editor's note: mWater is a free, open-access system used to monitor water sources, offering a global map, a mobile phone app for recording sources and test results, and inexpensive water-testing kits. There are currently more than 100,000 mWater users in 180 countries. Even though mWater is a nonprofit, it's actively engaged in finding market-based solutions to water and sanitation issues because, as CEO Annie Feighery says, "Working in a revenue model ensures our product is always needed." Feighery, who earned a doctorate in health and behavior at Columbia University, talks below about the extent of waterborne disease around the world, and how mWater differs from other nonprofit tech startups. In the second of the two-part interview, she discusses why NGOs almost never go out of business, how mWater will know when it's time to shut down, and why paper is the firm's biggest challenge.

Kyle Poplin: What problems is mWater dedicated to solving, and how does it help solve them?

Annie Feighery: At its core, mWater is our best effort to eliminate waterborne (diarrheal) disease. We see this as the cornerstone to eliminating severe poverty on the planet. Diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death for children under 5, but even that stat obscures how very bad it is. For the children who survive, diarrheal disease is the leading cause of malnutrition and the physical and mental stunting from malnutrition that cause lifelong disability. Entire communities are not as able to work as adults at the level they could if they had safe water as children. Physical stunting is also a top cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. There are many examples like this of the domino impact safe water (or lack thereof) has on communities working to escape the cycle of poverty.