Water is the most essential element of life; it is required for basic sustenance, health, and irrigation. Nearly one billion people do not have access to clean, safe water. The United Nations estimates that Sub-Saharan Africa alone loses 40 billion hours per year collecting water; that’s the same as a whole year’s worth of labor by France’s entire workforce! Electrical pumps are the most effective method to alleviate this crisis and provide clean and safe water for all.

Education is widely recognized as one of the most essential components for poverty reduction. According to UNDESA, about 90% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa go to primary schools that lack electricity, while 27% of village schools in India lack electricity access, thus not being able to operate electric lights, refrigerators, fans, computers, and printers. Electrified schools outperform non-electrified schools on key educational indicators, have better staff retention, and can in some cases enable broader social and economic development of communities.

For more than a billion people worldwide, kerosene lamps are the primary lighting source, which is expensive, unsafe and carcinogenic. The World Bank estimates that breathing kerosene fumes is the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, and 66% of adult females with lung cancer in developing nations are nonsmokers.

Electricity is a key component of economic empowerment. Electricity can increase household per capita income by 39 percent. Businesses operate at higher levels of productivity, farmers can run cleaner irrigation systems and processing machines that improve their yields and thus, their income.