Climate Change Induced Drinking Water in Coastal Bangladesh

Against this backdrop, Y-RISE (a global scaling research initiative), and BRAC (the largest NGO in the world) have partnered to develop a financially self-sustaining, scalable solution to provide the region with fresh drinking water for the foreseeable future. The centerpiece of this solution is to identify, fund, and support “water entrepreneurs” in coastal Bangladesh who will desalinate and then distribute clean drinking water to households. Water entrepreneurs will be funded via loans from BRAC’s large microfinance program. We will evaluate the effectiveness and scaling potential of the program using a clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT) and track business outcomes, water access, and population health.