I think this idea and article are great. This (decision-relevant/skill-building work as a social group) seems like exactly like what EA Groups should be doing. The article is well-written, clear and potentially important.
I don’t have enough knowledge to respond to your questions, but here’s some thoughts:
Digging wells in Niger seems to be cost-effective, however I wouldn’t necessarily generalise that digging wells is cost-effective. (You don’t do this, just pointing out for others.)
As you say, a lot of the country is on a large aquifer. This might make this intervention very good in Niger, but not scalable to other places.
Similarly, you’ve taken maximum values for rate reductions due to Niger having a larger burden. This wouldn’t translate to other places.
There’s no data here about the overhead of Wells4Wellness (for example salary costs). This could change calculations.
With regards to your Question 4: What do you expect the ‘major quality of life improvement’ to look like?
(I ask this both genuinely, my knowledge of this area is poor, and as a ‘coaching-style’ question to answer your question).
Having said that, do you know if W4W is likely to have room for significantly more funding? It seems like a good organisation to support!
Agreed that the effectiveness well-digging probably does not generalize to other organizations or places
Their overhead is only $50k per year, so it’s pretty small. And if we are thinking about the returns on an additional/marginal well, it probably doesn’t make sense to include fixed costs in our calculations
As far as scaling goes, we plan to address that in our next post! They are a small organization, but it sounds like they could probably double in size (which would mean an additional $300k in “revenue” per year) without running out of good well options or organizational barriers anytime soon
I think this idea and article are great. This (decision-relevant/skill-building work as a social group) seems like exactly like what EA Groups should be doing. The article is well-written, clear and potentially important.
I don’t have enough knowledge to respond to your questions, but here’s some thoughts:
Digging wells in Niger seems to be cost-effective, however I wouldn’t necessarily generalise that digging wells is cost-effective. (You don’t do this, just pointing out for others.)
As you say, a lot of the country is on a large aquifer. This might make this intervention very good in Niger, but not scalable to other places.
Similarly, you’ve taken maximum values for rate reductions due to Niger having a larger burden. This wouldn’t translate to other places.
There’s no data here about the overhead of Wells4Wellness (for example salary costs). This could change calculations.
With regards to your Question 4: What do you expect the ‘major quality of life improvement’ to look like?
(I ask this both genuinely, my knowledge of this area is poor, and as a ‘coaching-style’ question to answer your question).
Having said that, do you know if W4W is likely to have room for significantly more funding? It seems like a good organisation to support!
Thanks!
Agreed that the effectiveness well-digging probably does not generalize to other organizations or places
Their overhead is only $50k per year, so it’s pretty small. And if we are thinking about the returns on an additional/marginal well, it probably doesn’t make sense to include fixed costs in our calculations
QoL improvements: Not having to walk extended distance to get their water and then carry it back, being able to use more water because you don’t have to carry it so far, not having to drink visually dirty water (https://www.wells4wellness.com/uploads/1/4/9/3/149316772/published/screenshot-278.png?1754683435)
As far as scaling goes, we plan to address that in our next post! They are a small organization, but it sounds like they could probably double in size (which would mean an additional $300k in “revenue” per year) without running out of good well options or organizational barriers anytime soon