Our Impact
Completed community boreholes across Lagos and Kano, each one free to use and overseen by a caretaker the community selected. Funded so far through product revenue and founder contributions.
Each one remains free to use at the point of collection.
Lagos and Kano.
We publish a verified figure per project rather than one headline number we cannot stand behind.
No community member is ever charged for water at a Love Water borehole.
The Projects
Six completed community boreholes across Lagos and Kano. Each one is free at the point of collection and overseen by a caretaker the community selected. Where a figure is not yet verified, we say so rather than estimating it.
Read community stories
Households here relied on a shared vendor tank and an unreliable stream, and paid for water that was not always safe. The borehole opened in 2021, funded out of founder contributions and early product revenue, and is overseen by a caretaker the community selected. It has been in continuous use since — which is the only measure of a borehole that really counts.
Most families here collected water from sources a considerable walk away, usually starting before dawn so children could still make it to school. The borehole sits centrally and is free at the point of collection, as every Love Water borehole is.
Alimosho is one of the most densely populated areas in Lagos, which makes a single reliable water point serve a great many households. Siting it took longer than drilling it.
Kano's water table sits considerably deeper than Lagos, which made this the most technically demanding project we had taken on. It is also the one that convinced us the model could travel.
Drilling deeper is not only a cost question — it changes the pump, the casing and the maintenance plan. This project used everything we learned the year before, and cost less as a result.
The most recent completed project, and the point at which product revenue rather than founder contributions became the main source of funding. Number seven is the one that needs outside support.
Community Ownership
Every completed project is overseen locally by a caretaker the community itself selects. They handle day-to-day upkeep, flag problems early and make sure access stays free for everyone — including the households least able to pay if it ever were not.
This is the part that determines whether a borehole is still working in five years, and it is the part most often skipped.
Community Voices
Interviews recorded on location across Lagos and Kano. Video versions link from each quote once uploaded.
“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.”
“My daughters were the ones walking. Now they walk to school instead, and they are not tired when they arrive.”
“I was chosen by the community to look after the borehole. It is free for everyone here, and my job is to keep it that way.”
“I sell food. Before, half my morning went to fetching water. That half morning is my business now.”
“People came to look at it for weeks after it opened. Not because it is unusual to see water — because it was unusual to see it here.”
“What I appreciate is that nobody comes to collect money from us. It was built and then it was ours.”
“We used to close the school early in the dry season. We have not had to do that since.”
“The children were sick often. Less now. I am not a doctor, but I know what changed.”
Typical borehole projects have historically cost approximately $4,000–$6,000 depending on location and site requirements.