In June 2024, the Alok Institute launched the “Water for Drinking” program, aiming to provide access to clean drinking water in 7 states and 21 cities in the Northeast region of Brazil, benefiting approximately 30,000 people.
“I dreamed of being a father. Today, I have two children, and knowing that in my country children still get sick or die due to a lack of treated water is something that moves and saddens me. Instituto Alok will contribute at least R$1 million in 2024 through our Água de Beber – Nordeste program, partnering with UNICEF and Água Camelo,” says Alok.
The Water For Drinking project has formed partnerships with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the social startup Água Camelo. Their efforts are focused on vulnerable communities in capital and interior cities, rural areas, indigenous villages, and traditional communities in the Northeast region, specifically in the states of Paraíba, Piauí, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará, and Bahia.
Our goal is to team up with other partners to support progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) by 2030 – focused on ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, with a special emphasis on the needs of women and girls.
Fotos: Alécio Cézar
WASH – Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene
In partnership with UNICEF, we are part of the WASH initiative, working alongside many other partners to support the strengthening of public policies in northeastern states and promoting health, well-being, and the full development of children and adolescents through actions and strategies related to safe access to water for human consumption, sanitary sewerage services, and good hygiene practices. Our priority areas include
● Sanitation in rural areas;
● Promotion of healthy and sustainable environments in schools;
● Traditional peoples and communities.
The focus of this partnership in 2024/25 will be on addressing the needs of the states of Pernambuco and Bahia. In Pernambuco, we will work on improving water, sanitation, and sewage systems in 40 rural schools, as well as providing support to ensure water chlorination and availability of menstrual dignity materials in schools. The identified municipalities in Pernambuco are Araripina, Bodocó, Cumaru, Itaíba, and Ouricuri. In the southern region of Bahia, our activities will cover three cities: Porto Seguro, Santa Cruz de Cabrália, and Prado, encompassing 12 indigenous communities.
According to Rodrigo Resende, UNICEF Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Officer in Brazil: “We are very happy to celebrate the second project between Instituto Alok and UNICEF. In 2021, the partnership focused on ensuring safe environments, through hygiene practices, for children, adolescents, and vulnerable families during the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the actions, 10 handwashing stations were installed in Maranhão, prioritizing schools in quilombola communities in greater São Luís. Additionally, the alliance worked with the population to raise awareness about good hygiene practices through handwashing, including the school community for the safe reopening of schools.”
Fotos: Alécio Cézar
Água Camelo Centers – Drinking Fountains
The partnership with the startup Água Camelo enables access to treated and potable water. Starting with 20 community points in 12 cities across 6 states: Pernambuco, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Piauí, and Ceará. These community points will feature innovative water treatment, collection, and refrigeration systems. The first locations have been strategically chosen in institutions that cater to socially vulnerable people and communities lacking potable water.
● Ceará: Fortaleza, Maracanaú, Forquilha, Eusébio, and Aracati.
● Rio Grande do Norte: Mossoró.
● Paraíba: João Pessoa and Campina Grande.
● Pernambuco: Caruaru and Petrolina.
● Alagoas: Maceió.
● Piauí: Parnaíba.
These actions will benefit around 16,000 people.
According to Água Camelo co-founder João Piedrafita: “It is essential to work in a network to fight this great battle, where 35 million people in Brazil alone wake up every day without a glass of clean water to drink in their homes. Therefore, it is crucial to always build projects with many hands, with partner institutions, community leaders, and organizations that have local knowledge and the trust of the people, to always have the best and greatest possible impact. It is a great honor to bring this partnership with Instituto Alok, an organization we admire and have long envisioned working with, to fruition. Moreover, we believe it is an example where Alok, its founder, uses his enormous visibility to make a difference in such important causes, through his engagement with essential issues and his seriousness and dedication to genuine impact.”
Instituto Alok is supported by WAAW – audio equipment.
Fotos: Gabriel Tesserolli / Água Camelo
Water and Health
In Brazil, it is estimated that around 30 million people still do not have access to treated water, and about 100 million live without sewage collection.
According to UNICEF, the lack of access to sanitation – toilets and sewage systems – is one of the deprivations that most impacts children and adolescents in Brazil. According to data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua) 2020 (the latest available for this theme), four out of ten girls and boys were deprived of this right.
There are nearly twice as many black and indigenous children and adolescents deprived of the right to sanitation in Brazil, compared to white and yellow ones – 47% and 29.7%, respectively. The problem is more serious in the North and Northeast regions, where there are states with more than 80% of children and adolescents deprived of sanitation, as indicated by the UNICEF research “The Multiple Dimensions of Childhood and Adolescence Poverty in Brazil“. Although these numbers have been decreasing, the precariousness and lack of investment in public health systems, including sanitation and access to clean water, are one of the main causes of infant mortality in Brazil (after prematurity, due to lack of assistance and guidance to pregnant women, many in a state of malnutrition, and – once again – due to the deficit in environmental sanitation services).
Drinking poor-quality water primarily causes gastrointestinal and stomach diseases in children, but not exclusively, with symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, and fever, along with the appearance of worm infestations. Among the diseases it can cause, the most serious are leishmaniasis and leptospirosis.
Infant mortality includes the sum of deaths (0-6 days of life), late neonatal (7-27 days), and post-neonatal (28 days and less than 1 year of age) per thousand live births, in a given geographical area, in the year considered.
The lack of clean water impacts black and indigenous children and adolescents more intensely, also compromising their access to other rights. Approximately 2.1 million children and adolescents live without adequate access to water in Brazil.
(Sources: Ecoa/Uol, Unicef, Observatory of the Legal Framework of Early Childhood, Abrinq Foundation, Ministry of Health, and IBGE)
How UNICEF Works
Among other strategies, in Brazil, Unicef has the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene initiative (WASH), aimed at supporting the strengthening of public policies in more vulnerable territories – with special attention to indigenous peoples and traditional communities – water, sanitation, and hygiene services in schools, and capacity building for municipalities located in the Legal Amazon and Brazilian Semi-Arid.
The actions aim at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 6, which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of clean water and sanitation for all, with special attention to the needs of women and girls and people in vulnerable situations.
For the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene area, UNICEF has the support of various individual donors and corporate partners.
Strategic Partners: Aegea, FRAM Capital, Salvador Arena Foundation, Profarma Group, RD Group-RaiaDrogasil, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Labor Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPT), Takeda.
Partners: Tigre Group, Alok Institute, and WEG.
Supporter: Sempre Livre® & Carefree®.
The strategy also relies on international partners who support emergency actions and the migration crisis: European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (Echo), United States Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), and Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Aecid).
UNICEF’s WASH Program in Brazil aims to achieve overall systemic results. Below are some of UNICEF’s goals for this initiative in 2024:
- Benefit 60,000 people with basic access to water
- 60 solar-powered water systems
- 5 municipalities with developed and approved municipal basic sanitation plans
- 60 health units provided with basic WASH services
- 200 schools reached with basic WASH services
- 20,000 women and adolescent girls with menstrual hygiene needs addressed
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Como a Água Camelo atua
Água Camelo is a startup that aims to create a positive social and environmental impact, with a focus on the ESG market. The company works on projects to provide access to clean drinking water for organizations, and to promote access to safe sources of treated water for individuals in vulnerable situations. Their projects span across urban centers, semi-arid regions, and the Amazon Rainforest.
To address the lack of access to treated water, the startup utilizes simple, affordable and easy-to-use technologies, providing high-quality water to populations without access to this basic service.
Camelo uses water filtration and distribution technology to provide safe drinking water to communities. They have designed filtering equipment that can process a high volume of raw water (24,000 liters/day) for treatment, making it suitable for consumption, personal hygiene, or food cleaning. The equipment has a hollow fiber membrane made of fluoropolymer PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) on the inner part. This material has high chemical stability, oxidation resistance, and resistance to acids and alkalis.
