How Matt Damon’s 2006 Zambia trip inspired a water nonprofit now reaching 92 million people

Matt Damon launched his water mission in 2006, founding H2O Africa Foundation to support safe-water initiatives. This evolved into Water.org, reaching over 92 million people through a financing model, transforming the global approach to the water crisis from charity to sustainable solutions.

American actor and film producer Matt Damon started his water mission in 2006 after witnessing the struggle for access to water in a Zambian village while filming in sub-Saharan Africa. He went on to found the H2O Africa Foundation that year, beginning a nearly two-decade effort that has since evolved into a global campaign reaching more than 92 million people through Water.org.

Damon spoke about that journey during an appearance on Amy Poehler’s podcast Good Hang with Amy Poehler, where he explained how his approach to the global water crisis changed from traditional projects such as drilling wells to a financing model designed to reach far more people.

Matt Damon’s journey from H2O Africa to Water.org

Damon founded H2O Africa Foundation in 2006 to raise awareness and support safe-water initiatives across Africa. Two years later, he met water and sanitation expert Gary White at the Clinton Global Initiative. Their organisations eventually joined forces, leading to the creation of Water.org in 2009.

The experience also changed Damon’s understanding of how the water crisis should be tackled. Rather than relying mainly on charity-funded infrastructure, Water.org developed a model that uses small loans to help people finance water and sanitation improvements.

Damon explained on the podcast that Water.org has now reached 92 million people through microfinance. He said that had the organisation continued relying on well-drilling alone, it would have taken about 600 years to reach the same scale.

“That 600 years is too long,” Amy Poehler responded during the conversation.

What Damon learned from the water crisis

Damon has previously spoken about the experience in Zambia that prompted him to become involved in the issue. During a water-collection trip in 2006, he met a 14-year-old girl who had ambitions of leaving her rural community, moving to Lusaka and becoming a nurse.

Damon later realised that her ability to attend school and think about her future depended in part on access to a borewell near her home. The experience helped him understand that the water crisis was not simply about the availability of drinking water, but also about education, time and economic opportunity.

He has since mentioned that the scale of the problem requires solutions that can be expanded beyond individual infrastructure projects. Water.org's current model focuses on financing and partnerships to help households gain access to safe water and sanitation.

Water.org reaches more than 92 million people

On Good Hang, Damon said described its microloan-based approach as both scalable and sustainable.

Water.org currently says its work has reached more than 92 million people, including 9.9 million people in the past year alone. The organisation says its financing-based approach is designed to remove barriers that prevent people from accessing safe water and sanitation.

Damon also pointed listeners towards Water.org when asked what individuals could do to support the cause. He highlighted the organisation's Get Blue campaign, through which consumers can support the initiative through participating products and brands.

About the Author

Garvit Bhirani is a journalist based in Gurugram. He is a Deputy Chief Content Producer at LiveMint, where he covers national and international news stories, focusing on accuracy and compelling storytelling for readers. <br><br> With a total of six years of experience in journalism, he has previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics for Google, taking on the role of news curation lead, and reported from the field on health, education, and agriculture stories for 101reporters and News9. He has also served as a content editor for entertainment and news media organisations. <br><br> Garvit holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Gurugram University, respectively. During college days, he joined India’s only non-profit student journalism network, where he anchored daily news updates and produced his own weekly show called ‘Data Fix’. <br><br> He was selected for the YES Foundation Media for Social Change Fellowship in Delhi, the Talking Data to the Fourth Pillar residential workshop, and the VOICE Fellowship in Pune. <br><br> He holds certificates in COVID-19-verification reporting, data journalism, food & agriculture, tech policy, media literacy and countering misinformation, and tackling election disinformation courses from Thomson Foundation, IndiaSpend, The Dialogue, US Mission in India, and AFP. <br><br> He can be reached on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/garvit-bhirani">LinkedIn</a> or on <a href="https://x.com/GarvitBhirani">@garvitbhirani</a> on X

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