Activity Description: In peri-urban areas of Hyderabad, India, drinking water is delivered in trucks that arrive irregularly and infrequently. This forces women and children to travel to neighboring towns or wait on line for water instead of working or attending school; it also means that families store water for weeks, increasing chances for recontamination.

Heritage Livelihood Services Provider is a project to deliver water sustainably to Hyderabad. An initial investment from the Acumen Fund in infrastructure development will 1) engage local community organizations to 2) educate community members about the value of improved water delivery, and 3) collect user fees from each resident.

Community organizations will ensure that the approximately 70,000 residents benefiting from Heritage’s project repay the capital through user fees (priced below the opportunity cost of the current arrangement), proving that clean water can be both affordable and profitable and encouraging others to enter the market.