POA Case Study

South Pole is currently developing the first global scale PoA: the International Water Purification Programme. This PoA is structured as an open platform and will be registered under UNFCCC. It is a multi-country programme that is open to different players and different types of water purification technologies.
Children collecting water in Najja village, Uganda.
The PoA uses international carbon finance to make water purification systems accessible on a worldwide basis, thus allowing the provision of clean and safe drinking water to low income households. The PoA is designed to improve the living conditions of local people on a long-term basis. The targeted users of the water purifications systems are households and communities throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. The PoA addresses directly several of the United Nations Millenium Development Goals (MDGs):
  • To halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
  • To integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes
  • To reverse the loss of environmental resources
  • To reduce child mortality and improve maternal health
  • To combat disease and ensure environmental sustainability
  • To develop a global partnership for development
The PoA will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the demand for fossil fuels and non-renewable biomass, which, in the absence of the PoA, are used to boil water for purification purposes.
The PoA will be managed by Swiss-based Pure Water Ltd., the coordinating/managing entity (CME), which will coordinate and oversee all activities related to the PoA. For the execution of its activities, the CME will work together with local carbon experts, and will cooperate with technology suppliers and their local implementation partners on the ground.
Overview of the CDM Programme of Activities (PoA) on Water Purification


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