Evidence Action's Dispensers for Safe Water programme installs chlorine dispensers at communal water points in rural Africa, giving nearly 4 million people reliable access to safe drinking water at an estimated cost of under $1 per person per year. It also runs Deworm the World, treating school-age children for under 50 cents per treatment.
A practical, infrastructure-based approach to both poverty and health: a gift here supports a shared dispenser an entire community keeps using, rather than one clinic visit or one family. GiveWell has backed both flagship programmes with large grants, though it notes the evidence that chlorination reduces child deaths is weaker than the chemistry evidence.
Where the money goes
Each chlorine dispenser serves a community water point at an estimated cost of under $1 per person per year; a separate Deworm the World programme treats one child for under $0.50 per deworming treatment.
