Water For the Americas (WFTA) was incorporated in Wyoming in May of 2002 as a publically funded charity. Early projects focused on the needs of Central America and focused on childhood education, household hygiene, and water and sanitation systems within rural communities. Working with in-country organizations, predominately local Rotary Clubs, WFTA provides technical leadership and design applications for providing basic water delivery systems and sanitation systems to ensure year round water availability to local communities. These projects have included working closely with local municipalities to ensure government support of the designs and implementation and typically the local villagers will provide manpower, for initial installation, along with individuals trained to provide maintenance of the pumps and distribution systems. Multiple projects have been completed throughout Guatemala including Guatemala City, Sactepequez, Chiquimula, Jocotan, and San Jacinto. Other completed projects in the Central America region include La Paz and San Vicente, El Salvador both water supply related. The long term goal of WFTA is to expand into water shed development and help improve management of multiple rural locations sharing common water supplies within a given region.
The business model of Water for the Americas (WFTA) is to provide technical expertise and leadership in the improvement of rural life within Central and South America. Most funding for projects has been provided by outside organizations, for example Rotary Clubs throughout the US, which goes directly to an in-country organization that provides the project management support. This typically includes purchase of materials, coordinating resources, and implementation of the designs and concepts provided by WFTA. The initial funding effort is typically coordinated through WFTA but the funding does not go through WFTA’s accounting system for distribution. WFTA has also provided limited funding, based on private donations, for specific projects but again the coordination of materials in done within country by local organizations.
