Member Profile: Protos

Our goal is to work on a better world for the underprivileged people, in the area of water. And there is still a lot to do! Today more than 1.1 billion people don’t have any safe drinking water nearby, and 2.6 billion people live without decent sanitary infrastructure!

Therefore, to PROTOS, working with water is giving equal opportunities to the less favoured either by providing them with safe drinking water or a clean toilet in their immediate surroundings, or by making optimal use of the available water for their agriculture.

Yet to PROTOS, working together with local people around water is at least as important. A few of our programmes’ strategic objectives are: to emancipate local people with regard to their local or central government, to join all interested parties around the table and so avoid conflicts around water, and also to give more opportunities to women and children.

In short, to PROTOS “Water is THE lever for development.“

In the beginning (1977), PROTOS was only active in Haiti. From 1982 on, PROTOS also became active in DR Congo, and soon after in Burundi.
In the 90's, there was an expansion of the field of action: first to Rwanda (1993), later to Benin (1994), Mali (1995), Ecuador (1997) and Uganda (2000). At the beginning of 2006, finally, PROTOS got started in Madagascar.

PROTOS encourages the local population to join hands and to find solutions for their water-related problems themselves.

Now, every year about 100,000 people get (a better) access to drinking water and/or sanitation and 30,000 people get irrigation water for agriculture. This directly improves their health, food security, and socio-economic situation.

Training and organisation: water committees, farmers’ organisations, NGO’s, local authorities, and governmental services are formed and reinforced. They maintain the water projects, and develop new ones.

PROTOS is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that dedicates itself to better water management in the South and in Belgium. An equitable access to sufficient water is a basic human right. Not only is water a source of life, but it is also THE lever for economic and social development of underprivileged population groups in the South.
PROTOS encourages processes and projects around participatory, equitable, and sustainable water management. The implementation of the projects takes place in cooperation with local NGO’s, local farmers’ and users’ organisations, and local authorities. The programmes are well integrated within the local culture and social circumstances.
Relying on its experiences in the field of water, PROTOS also advocates more equitable relationships between the North and the South. It does so through training, awareness raising, networking, and influencing policy makers.

Characteristics

-Politically and ideologically neutral.
-Focusing on water: drinking water, hygiene, sanitation, water for agricultural purposes, Integrated Water Resources Management.
-Long-term commitments with a limited number of countries in Africa and Latin America.
-Collaboration with all actors who are involved with local development, such as NGO’s, farmers’ organisations and local governments.
-Professional assistance to partners and their development initiatives.
-Strong interrelations between the activities in the South and the educational and political activities in the North.

$8,500,000

www.protosh2o.org

IBAN: BE90 3900 9660 0032 BIC: BBRUBEBB Bank: ING, Kouter 173, B-9000 Gent, Belgium