Jonathan Rose founded clean water non-profit Waves for Water, after he retired from a life chasing the waves. From our Environment issue.
Jonathan Rose’s life can be represented by three simple characters: H, 2, and O. The 9-year-old recreational surfer became the 17-year-old professional. After the 27-year-old pro retired, the social entrepreneur was born, bringing clean water to far-flung corners of the world. At 40, he enjoys both: regular fun surfs in California and running Waves for Water, the nonprofit he founded to install clean-water systems wherever they are needed.
Rose takes on the worldwide problem of unsanitary water with a surfer’s love of risk and adventure. Founded in 2009, Waves for Water has distributed over 155,000 water filtration systems, impacting roughly 8 million people in 27 countries. “There are so many problems in the world that are seemingly unsolvable, and water is not one of them,” Rose says.
Waves for Water distributes portable water filters, digs and renovates wells, constructs rainwater collection systems, and engages in disaster relief efforts throughout the world. The wide-eyed and energetic Rose says his goal is to “leave the places I pass through a little better than I found them.”
Dirty water is a big problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly 780 million people worldwide do not have access to “improved” water—meaning their homes lack a piped water connection, there is no protected well or spring, or there is no rainwater collection system in a home or community. Rainwater collection is critical because water carried from rivers and dams often contains contaminants that result in disease.
The CDC reports that over 800,000 children under the age of 5 die every year from diarrhea caused by waterborne contaminants. And according to the World Health Organization(WHO), in low- and middle-income countries, 38 percent of health care facilities lack an improved water source, 19 percent do not have improved sanitation systems, and 35 percent don’t have water and soap for handwashing. With improved drinking water, sanitation systems, and hygiene, the CDC estimates more than 6 percent of deaths worldwide can be prevented.
Illness is not the only burden created by contaminated or inaccessible water. Collecting water from a remote location strains the time and effort of people who could be productive in other ways. And, in many locations around the world, the trip to collect water can be long and unsafe, creating a risk to vulnerable community members. WHO points out that improving access to clean water will result in improved health, lower medical costs, better school attendance, and greater economic productivity.
In recognition of the global burden created by unsanitary water, the United Nations marked March 22 as World Water Day beginning in 1993. With the hashtag #NoFilter, the UN seeks to focus attention on the issue of water cleanliness and availability, and the ways in which people can develop solutions. The 2018 theme, Nature for Water, explored nature-based ways such as planting new forests, restoring wetlands, and reconnecting rivers to floodplains to rebalance the world’s water cycle and to reduce flooding, droughts, and water pollution. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 is a commitment to ensuring that everyone in the world has access to safe water by 2030.
The WHO estimates by 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in “water-stressed areas,” largely a result of climate change, increased water scarcity, population growth, and urbanization.
Waves for Water is determined to conquer the problem of unsanitary water with a simple filter that can be installed in homes, clinics, community gathering spots, orphanages… in fact, anywhere. Rose says the filter is derived from the technology of dialysis and is “cost-effective, portable, and easy to use.”
In a matter of minutes, a plastic bucket can be outfitted with a filter that traps contaminants and produces clean water through a hose. The visuals are astonishing—as filthy water is poured into the bucket, you see a glass of clean drinking water emerge seconds later. And best of all, notes Rose, community members learn to install and maintain the systems themselves. With regular cleaning, each filter lasts for 5 million gallons of water.
Rose tells us Waves for Water is “making a dent,” though with forces of nature and demographics working against the accessibility of clean water, the playing field is not level. “The gravity is very strong, but I don’t think we’re doomed. I’m an optimist.” He adds that in 2009, one in six people lacked access to clean water—today that number is one in nine. “That’s a measurable stat I can stand on.”
Waves for Water has both clean water programs and networks of water-minded people around the globe through partnerships with government entities such as the United Nations and the U.S. military; corporations’ social responsibility programs; businesses with an interest in emerging markets; large nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and wealthy individuals with an interest in water.
The organization is overseen by a five-member board, and Rose serves as its president. Waves for Water functions on a “service-based industry business model,” making it unique among the dozens of nonprofits dedicated to water purity, Rose says. “We have no fundraisers or galas. Others raise funds and subcontract us—we are solely implementers.”
Waves for Water conducts a needs assessment and establishes a timeline and budget for deliverables for its proposal to the hiring entity. The organization’s relationships around the world afford it entry to water stressed locations and a platform from which to build trust and rally communities.The organization’s Clean Water Couriers engage travelers who volunteer to carry water filters in their luggage when headed to a location in need.
When it is hired for a project, Waves for Water first engages in community dialogue to learn the specific problems a region faces, understand the culture, and earn trust. This dialogue leads to implementing the water cleaning systems how and where they best serve the community. “We don’t come in and dictate, we listen,” Rose explains. Empowering community leaders to empower their people is critical to both implementation and successful outcomes.
The challenges Waves for Water faces are not insignificant. Aside from climate and other forces pushing against the accessibility of water, “rallying people around a common purpose or common fight” can be tough, Rose knows. He argues that solving global issues requires a fight that many people do not have either the time or the mental bandwidth to undertake.
“People are distracted, and it’s harder to get the fight going than it used to be.” And while Waves for Water’s business model is unique, all philanthropic organizations compete for partnerships with sponsoring entities. The occasional pushback from local governments and agencies can be frustrating, but Rose seeks to mitigate it by working directly with residents and community leaders.
Rose stays personally involved with every project Waves for Water takes on. He goes to each location to check all the projects for “visionary consistency and morale.” Monitoring projects is important, he said, to “ensure people are benefiting to the full potential and for us to learn how they have adapted the tools we’ve given them to meet their needs.”
Notwithstanding the challenges he faces and the despair he encounters, Rose is enormously energized by his work and humbled by the people he meets. “Locals have taught me that I’m a passenger, not a driver. I may be an expert, but I couldn’t be more wrong. They show me what I don’t know,” he says.
Rose shares the story of working in Haiti following the earthquake there in 2010. “I had 500 filters left, and I stressed for weeks about how to distribute them fairly,” he says. At last, a local pastor assured Rose he had the answer: Give one to every pregnant woman. Rose calls it a “no-brainer” that had somehow eluded him.
“Lessons like that come up all the time. I let the true community drivers drive safely and fairly,” Rose says.
Rose grew up in Laguna Beach, California, where he lived in a studio apartment with his father and no money. Notwithstanding economic hardship, “I was living the life, surfing all the time from the time I was 9, and I didn’t have the same passion for anything else,” he says. Rose dropped out of Laguna Beach High School in his junior year, became a professional surfer, traveled globally in competitions, and had sponsorship deals with Billabong and Quiksilver, among others.
Rose’s life took a downturn in his late 20s when “some accidents and some bad decisions” conspired to derail his career and his marriage, put his house in foreclosure, and throw his identity and self-image into a tailspin. Rose was nowhere.
A fortuitous invitation to surf with friends in Indonesia in 2009 turned his life around. Rose initially declined the trip saying he had no money, but he became caught up in a wave of enthusiasm from his buddies and managed to make it happen. While there, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit, casting Rose in the role of accidental first responder. “That moment was the polarizing thing to go on a new path. It made it clear where to place my energy and strong work ethic,” Rose says.
Rose was stunned by the carnage he encountered in the days following the earthquake. Because his father was involved in clean water initiatives in Africa, Rose had brought a handful of water filters on the surfing trip without ever thinking the need would be so dramatic. “It wasn’t supposed to be a job,” but clean water made all the difference in tending to the thousands of wounded people. Rose traveled to Haiti the following year with a plan to aid the earthquake relief effort for two weeks. He came home two years later. “Disasters are a door opening to places we want to work,” he says.
Waves for Water grew organically from Rose’s personality, values, upbringing, and experiences. What started out as a thought of giving back to the places he’d loved as a surfer morphed into being a provider of both urgent and ongoing relief to places in need globally. Rose is passionate about the organization’s “guerrilla humanitarianism” approach, and he hopes to grow the Waves for Water business model to address other global issues going forward. The most immediate goal, he says, is to “fully check a country off the list as a result of our work.”
wavesforwater.org
Images courtesy of Ethan Lovell.
