“Access to water is a fundamental human need and therefore a basic human right.” — Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary-General
In the heart of the Arizona desert, just a few miles away from the Mexican border, Kiva lender David spends a lot of time thinking about water.
The retired hydrogeologist lives in Patagonia, a small community of less than a thousand people, where the nearby Sonoita Creek nourishes a surprisingly lush green slice in an otherwise harsh landscape. It is a constant reminder to him of how a fresh source of water is the difference between life and death — not only for plants and animals, but for humanity. And it is the lens through which he sees the world.
“I’ve been told I’m very ‘hydrocentric,’” says David with a laugh, who spent his career working with government agencies testing for water quality around Arizona and volunteering around the globe to help those without access to clean water.
“The water crisis has always inspired my interest in international development — because you can’t achieve anything without it.”
He first became Kiva lender in 2013 after former President Bill Clinton made news endorsing a Kiva pilot project in Little Rock, Arkansas, and saw how microfinance had the potential to address some of the poverty-related issues he had witnessed firsthand in his travels.
“I admired Kiva’s growth and continued innovation in helping the developing world,” he says, adding, “I don’t like the term ‘third world.’ We are all one world.”
Since then, David has made 200 loans to borrowers in 46 countries and has seen his direct deposits of US$1,195 balloon into US$8,375 thanks to Kiva’s re-lending model. Though he considers his contributions modest, the effect of lending directly to each person continues to inspire him.
“I’m making an impact with what is essentially my beer money,” he says.
“I really enjoy the process of seeking out the borrowers and reading their stories.”
“I’m making an impact with what is essentially my beer money."
Water is life
Access to clean water has been a part of David’s life since he was a hydrology student at the University of Arizona.
“I was always interested in international development, particularly the social aspect of water,” recalls “I started reading about the Peace Corps and things like that.”
After graduate school in the 1990s, David put his skillset to work with Water For People, a global non-profit organization focused on bringing sanitation and sustainable water solutions to vulnerable communities. Over the next decade, he helped track freshwater aquifers, filter arsenic from wells, and support agriculture projects from Uganda to India, observing the universal difference water access makes to quality of life.
“It’s related so much to health, not just the disease that comes from drinking bad water, but the labor it takes to get it,” he admonishes, citing studies that show the physical toll collecting water takes on women and girls.
Water shortages are also of great concern lately, as climate change provokes droughts in some places and raises sea levels in others, compromising communities’ freshwater resources.
“A lot of places are doing a good job with conservation,” says the hydro-activist, looking at the standards of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation.
“But the global water crisis is here.”
“When thousands of people lend that small amount, it really adds up."
A family team
David enjoys his experience with Kiva so much that he’s brought his extended family into the mix, forming a lending team made up of his grandnieces and nephews to whom he bestows Kiva gift cards for birthdays and holidays.
“It’s been interesting to see the differences in their lending practices,” he muses, admitting he sometimes has to send off a “pep email” to remind them to choose new loans.
“My nephew will go for car-related loans, like if someone is starting a taxi business, and my niece tends to lend to women..”
As far as his own lending preferences, David will look for water-related projects and concentrate his funds towards borrowers in the agricultural and entrepreneurial sectors, where the money is more likely to contribute to someone’s livelihood and have a “clear multiplier effect.”
“If the borrowers had multiple loans that were paid off, that’s also a good sign,” he adds.
He also looks at the statistics of the loan’s Lending Partner, though he evaluates them with an open mind.
“I have been to some of these places, and I can understand how hard it must be to collect payments,” he muses, describing traveling around Western Uganda’s single-track roads on a motorcycle.
As far as his own experience with defaulted loans, it has been minimal.
“It looks like I have a loss of ninety dollars over almost ten years. I think that’s pretty good.”
Keeping the cycle going
David remains as “hydrocentric” as ever, focusing his volunteer efforts these days on restoration efforts of the watershed near his desert home. But he continues to tout safe water access as humanity’s “universal factor” and sees lending on Kiva as a way to make an impact on improving people’s lives, $25 at a time.
“When thousands of people lend that small amount, it really adds up,” says the enthusiastic Kivan.
“I plan to keep the cycle going.”
Want to help David keep the cycle going? Make an eco-friendly loan here.
