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Healing Waters International: Addressing the Water Crisis Around the World
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ccess to clean, affordable water is a vital precondition for public health and a thriving economy, and its absence is a serious challenge for many communities and countries around the world. Healing Waters International is one of the many organizations taking on the challenge of bringing affordable, sustainable potable water infrastructure to underdeveloped communities across the globe. In this interview, Healing Waters CEO Rob Anthony and Director of Field Operations and Lead Engineer Walter Nonemaker tell Municipal Water Leader about how they are carrying out the organization’s mission. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.
Walter Nonemaker: I got excited about international development, community development, and mission work in high school. I started learning Spanish and going on discovery trips to Spanish-speaking countries. I knew that I wanted to do something with my life that would make the world a better place. I decided to study civil and environmental engineering
30 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | October 2021
A rendering of a solar reverse osmosis kiosk, typical of Healing Waters International’s projects in Haiti.
in college, and water emerged as my primary interest. I continued doing international internships, studying abroad, going on discovery trips, and improving my Spanish. When I finished college, I started searching for jobs in this sector and got hired to work in Guatemala as field staff for Healing Waters International. I started out as the Guatemala water treatment technician, and over the years, I was able to grow within the organization to become the Guatemala country director. I eventually relocated back to the United States after living in Guatemala for 9 years and became the director of field operations for Healing Waters International. More recently, my role has expanded to director of field operations and lead engineer. I oversee most of the operational and programmatic components of our work. Municipal Water Leader: Tell us about Healing Waters International as an organization and its history and mission. Rob Anthony: We started in 2002 after a husband-and-wife team went on a mission trip to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. They put together a water purification kiosk to sell water in the community at a price that was much more affordable than anything the people in the city had municipalwaterleader.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF HEALING WATERS INTERNATIONAL.
Rob Anthony: After a successful exit from an engineering and manufacturing company that I started coming out of college, I was a pastor at a church in Oregon. One of the things we were involved in was international mission work, through which we helped communities develop different aspects of their community life. Through my travels, I became cognizant of the magnitude of the global water crisis for the first time in my life. We kept stumbling on this issue, which was holding communities back in terms of both health and economic development. We couldn’t do the work we’d planned to do because of that issue. At the same time, an Oregon technology startup called Puralytics was developing innovative technologies for purifying water that used light and nanotechnology and had low energy needs. It held a lot of promise for helping address water purification problems in the developing world, especially in places that are remote, underserved, and underresourced. I invested in the company, joined its board, and spent about 2½ years traveling throughout Africa, Central America, and Asia, running trials and looking for ways to apply the technology at a large scale. One issue we ran into was that providing safe water that meets drinking standards at an extremely low cost is difficult. I also realized that there was a need for more than just technology—there was a need to bring holistic and economically sustainable solutions that build local capacity, knowledge, and community engagement. That’s when I came across Healing Waters International through some relationships that I had. I was invited to come on board here about 5 years ago.
