Kora in Okrane’s Water is Life Initiative

In 2018, the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands launched a nationwide campaign called the Clean Water Initiative to provide Marshallese families better access to safe drinking water.

The Marshallese government partnered with the Local Governments, Sawyer Filters, Water Charity, and the United Nations organisations, namely the United Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and World Health Organisation (WHO).

The five-year Clean Water initiative “Kora in Okrane (KIO’s) Dren in Mour is Water is Life” project was divided into three phases. The more distant remote atolls were selected for the first water filter distributions.

With the collaboration of multiple stakeholders, the project was rolled out in 2019, and over 8,000 water filters were distributed to households, churches, and schools through all 24 atolls. The first distribution of water filters was to the most remote atolls in the RMI as they were more vulnerable to water shortages, inconsistent transportation and limited resources. Gradually, the distribution closed in, and the urban centers were the last ones left to complete the distribution for the whole country.

RMI is now the second country worldwide, behind Liberia, to have border-to-border basic access to clean water through this important initiative. This project was implemented to improve access to clean water for Marshallese families and reduce illness caused by disease-borne drinking water.

This initiative came to a close in July 2023 having contributed to the improvement of the livelihoods of the people of RMI, giving them easy and free access to clean water.

Photo Credit: RMI Office of Commerce, Investment and Tourism