b.waterMISSION: What BWT Is Doing with Drinking Water in Africa
How the AQUA PEARLS Foundation's b.waterMISSION project works: countries, water point technology, dated figures, and funding sources.
BWT has a charitable arm that is separate from its commercial business. It is structured as a private nonprofit foundation, and its main project builds drinking water supply points in three African countries. This article examines how it works technically and which figures the company discloses.
The Foundation and the Project: Who Does What
AQUA PEARLS Foundation is a private nonprofit foundation established in December 2016 on the initiative of BWT and its head, Andreas Weissenbacher. The foundation works in several areas and with partner organizations on different continents.
b.waterMISSION is a project within this foundation; cooperation on it began in 2020. The foundation describes it as its flagship project. The current geographic focus is Tanzania, Gambia, and Kenya.
A clarification on terminology: BWT has no program called Water for All. The correct names are AQUA PEARLS Foundation and b.waterMISSION.
How a Water Point Is Built
Technically, the most interesting part is not the drilling but the metering and maintenance system. According to the foundation's description, it consists of three elements.
The first is a prepaid tag. A villager buys credit via a mobile phone, and the credit is written to a b.waterMISSION NFC tag.
The second is a network-connected water dispensing point. The user taps the tag, the dispenser releases water, and the volume is deducted from the credit.
The third is cloud monitoring. The dispensers transmit data to analytics software, which shows the state of the system in real time.
The logic of the solution is clear to any operations engineer. A well with no funding source for maintenance fails within one or two seasons. Here the payment for water creates a transparent cash flow for repairs, and telemetry shows which dispenser has stopped without a site visit.
A human element is added to this. According to the foundation's description, individual villagers are trained in maintenance and repair skills and are responsible for keeping the dispensers in their village working.
Figures and Dates
Any figure here only makes sense together with its disclosure date. BWT delisted from the stock exchange in 2017, so these data are self-disclosure by the company and the foundation, not audited reporting.
According to BWT as of 18.12.2024:
- 372 new water points built
- 98,100 people supplied with drinking water
- 567,935,705 liters of water dispensed
According to the AQUA PEARLS foundation's b.waterMISSION project page (current status as of 2026):
- 769 water points built
- 216,488 people supplied with water
- 747,590,005 liters dispensed
The gap between the two snapshots shows the pace: about two years and roughly a twofold increase in the number of points. These data cannot be verified independently, so it is correct to cite them exactly that way: according to BWT's own data, with the date.
How It Is Funded
The foundation states that 100 percent of every donation goes to the selected projects, with administrative costs kept minimal. Donations are tax deductible in Austria.
One of the fundraising mechanisms is the Best Water Run. It is a 6-kilometer run timed to World Water Day. The distance was chosen as a symbol: it is roughly how far people in communities without a nearby water point walk every day.
According to BWT's results for 2026: 14,082 participants from 43 countries, more than 80,000 kilometers in total, and over 84,000 euros raised. BWT donates 6 euros for each participant. Cumulatively since 2019, according to the company, about 83,000 people in Africa have gained access to clean drinking water.
Individual foundation projects in Kenya are described case by case. For example, in 2025 in Gatigiriri the foundation reports 114 points built and almost two million liters of water for more than 16,000 residents; in Kiamariga, 23 points for about 3000 people; in Olmoran and Karandi, 54 points for more than 7000 people.
How to Read Projects Like This
A few sober observations.
The project's reporting is corporate. It is not externally audited and cannot be compared with independent assessments. That is not a reason to reject it, but it is a reason to name the source.
The key indicator here is not the number of points built but the share still working after three to five years. This is what telemetry and the training of local technicians are aimed at. The foundation does not publish separate failure statistics.
The prepaid water model raises questions on the social side. The foundation explains it as a source of funds for maintenance. How it affects water access for the poorest households cannot be assessed from the published materials.
What matters for a customer in Uzbekistan
- The model is applicable to rural water supply in the regions: telemetry at the water point and a trained local technician deliver more than one-off drilling with no maintenance plan.
- When planning any water treatment, build maintenance costs into the project budget rather than leaving them for later. This is the project's main lesson in its purest form.
- Working with BWT as a brand does not create automatic social obligations for the supplier. Charitable activity is conducted through a separate foundation and is not part of the commercial contract.
- When citing these data in tender or presentation documents, always state the date and the source. The foundation's figures change, and an outdated figure without a date undermines trust in the entire document.