We turn products, donations and local innovation into clean water solutions for communities across Nigeria.
The Problem
Millions of people still live without reliable access to safe water. Not because water does not exist near them, but because the infrastructure that carries it, cleans it and keeps it flowing was never built where they live.
In Nigeria, only about a quarter of the population uses improved drinking water sources and sanitation facilities. Across sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls routinely spend more than thirty minutes a day collecting water — time taken from school, from work, from everything else.
The cost of that gap is measured in hours walked, school days missed, businesses that never open and illnesses that were entirely preventable.
Source: WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, 2025 report (2024 data)
Source: UNICEF Nigeria, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Source: UNICEF Nigeria
Source: WHO / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, 2025
Our Model
We are not a traditional charity. Revenue from the products we sell, alongside donations and grants, pays for infrastructure on the ground and capital for the Nigerian founders solving water access from the inside.
We fund and construct community boreholes that provide free access to clean water. Once complete, every borehole stays free to use and is overseen by a caretaker the community itself selects.
We provide grants to Nigerian entrepreneurs, engineers and startups developing practical solutions to water accessibility — purification, distribution, monitoring, affordable sanitation.
Product sales, donations, partnerships and grants finance the work. Buying a bottle and funding a borehole are part of the same system, not separate ones.
The Film
Our mini-documentary introduces the communities we work with, the problem as they describe it, and the people whose daily lives changed when a borehole opened on their street. Nine minutes, filmed on location in Nigeria.
9 min · Filmed on location in Lagos and Kano.
On the Ground
Six completed community boreholes across Lagos and Kano, each one free to use and overseen by a caretaker the community chose. Every project below was funded through product revenue and founder contributions.
See all projects
Households here relied on a shared vendor tank and an unreliable stream. The borehole opened in 2021, funded entirely out of founder contributions and early product sales, and is overseen by a caretaker the community selected. It has been in continuous use since.
Before the project, most families collected water from sources a considerable walk away, usually before dawn. The borehole sits centrally and stays free at the point of collection, as every Love Water borehole does.
Kano's water table sits deeper than Lagos, which made this the most technically demanding project we had taken on at that point. It is also the one that convinced us the model could travel.
Shop to Give
Premium reusable bottles, filtration, and high-alkaline bottled water. Buy something you were going to buy anyway, and put the margin to work in Lagos and Kano.
Shop all products
$38.00
Proceeds fund clean-water projects
$299.99
Proceeds fund clean-water projects
$129.99$59.99
Proceeds fund clean-water projects
$25.60
Proceeds fund clean-water projects
Every product funds the programs. A product purchase is not a charitable donation. You are buying a product at fair market value; the proceeds help finance our charitable programs. Only gifts made through our Donate page are tax-deductible.
Donate instead
The Founder
Why should something as ordinary as water depend on where you were born? Naomi Alabi founded The Love Water because no answer to that question held up.
The first boreholes were not funded by a grant cycle or a gala. They were paid for out of her own pocket and out of revenue from the products this store still sells — which is why the commerce and the mission here are not two separate things.
Access to water should never depend on wealth or geography.
Naomi Alabi
Founder, The Love Water
The Love Water Innovation Grant
Infrastructure alone will not close the gap. We fund Nigerian founders, engineers and entrepreneurs building practical ways to make clean water more accessible, more affordable or more sustainable.
A $10 non-refundable application processing fee is required to submit a completed application. Paying it does not guarantee selection or funding.
Making unsafe water safe at household or community scale.
Moving water the last mile, affordably and reliably.
Knowing when a system fails before the community does.
Solutions priced for the households that need them.
Community Voices
“The water used to be the first thing I thought about in the morning and the last thing at night. Now it is just there, and I think about other things.
Take the Pledge
Make a shareable pledge graphic with your own photograph in about thirty seconds, then post it. Awareness is not a soft outcome for us — it is how communities, partners and funders find this work.
Free. No account needed. Your photo never leaves your device — the graphic is built in your browser.
Donate
A gift here pays for the things that outlast a visit — drilling, casing, pumps, testing, and the local oversight that keeps a borehole working years after the photographs are taken.
Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Donations support The Love Water's charitable mission and may be allocated where they are needed most unless you select a restricted option.
Ways to Help
Reusable bottles, filtration and bottled alkaline water. The margin goes to work in Nigeria.
One-time or monthly. Restricted to a borehole, or unrestricted so we can put it where it is needed most.
Make a pledge graphic and post it. Awareness is how partners and funders find us.
Partner With Us
Corporate sponsors, foundations, brands, retailers, universities and technology partners — tell us what you are trying to achieve.