Model and Strategy
DigDeep’s mission is to close the water and sanitation access gap, ensuring that every person in the United States has equitable access to basic water and wastewater services. The organization designs community-led water and sanitation projects that empower people who lack access to water to manage their own water and sanitation systems. DigDeep also invests in research, advocacy, and workforce development to solve the water crisis in the United States once and for all.
In 2019, DigDeep led an effort with Michigan State University (MSU), the US Water Alliance, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the root causes of the domestic water crisis. The resulting report, Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States, highlighted the extent to which communities that struggle with access to potable water remain hidden. To address the need for accurate and accessible information about the water access gap in the United States, DigDeep launched DigDeep Labs, a division of DigDeep that supports innovation, research, and data.
One of the first priorities of DigDeep Labs is the U.S. Water Access Dashboard: a collaboration with MSU that will make the underlying data and information about water injustice more visible and easy to access. The Dashboard will help WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) sector leaders identify impacted communities through government datasets, and facilitate policy responses. It will serve as a central source through which individuals, activists, and nonprofit partners can identify hotspots of water insecurity to facilitate community responses. It also will include case studies that provide valuable context to the data presented, including information on successful community-led responses to water insecurity. Additionally, the Dashboard will allow users to report when government data does not accurately represent what is happening on the ground, support activists and community members with evidence of their lived experience, and highlight ongoing gaps and the need for more consistent data about water access.
DigDeep Labs intends to develop the proof of concept and implement the U.S. Water Access Dashboard by September 2024. Ongoing development and maintenance will be managed by DigDeep Labs in partnership with MSU and other stakeholders, including an annual update based on available government data.
Impact
In communities without clean, running water or basic plumbing, DigDeep is empowering Americans to build and manage low-cost, locally-led projects that bring safe, hot-and-cold running water into homes, schools and community centers. In 2018 its flagship project, The Navajo Water Project, was awarded the US Water Prize, which celebrates outstanding achievement in the advancement of sustainable solutions to water challenges in the United States. This year, the Navajo Water Project expanded its service area and now serves households in 22 Chapters across the Navajo Nation. To date, the Project has brought clean, running water solutions to more than 600 households on the Navajo Nation.
DigDeep’s Appalachia Water Project, launched in 2021, has already made a significant impact on the rural communities of southwestern West Virginia by installing new water piping from mainlines into homes and safe sanitation solutions in McDowell and Wyoming Counties. Over the next two years, DigDeep will provide off-grid wastewater solutions to meet the sewage needs of rural families not currently slated for sewage lines — significantly impacting families’ daily lives as well as helping eliminate raw sewage contamination of nearby streams and waterways. DigDeep’s most recent project is the Colonias Project, which will get water flowing in colonias along the Texas-Mexico border —neighborhoods without basic services like running water, sewer, electricity, or roads.
DigDeep Labs was established in 2023 to gather and communicate actionable data to sharpen DigDeep’s work and empower impacted communities, policymakers, and WASH Sector partners. Its goal for the U.S. Water Access Dashboard is to ensure the hidden pockets of water insecurity across the U.S. are brought to light and that both activists and policymakers have the critical information needed to drive large-scale systems change as well as grassroots community action to close the water access gap forever.
Leadership
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George McGraw
CEO
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Kimberly Lemme
Executive Director, DigDeep Labs