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More than four billion people worldwide have fecal contamination in their drinking water. That figure has remained stubbornly high, even after decades of international investment and development efforts, as many water systems continue to fail.

The Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience at the °µÍø½ûÇø is developing a new model for global water access, one that is grounded in a deep understanding of why so many past efforts have fallen short. Rather than focusing solely on infrastructure, the center treats clean water as a long-term service that requires sustainable financing, ongoing monitoring and built-in accountability.

Led by Professor Evan Thomas, director of the Mortenson Center and a former NASA engineer, this innovative approach combines engineering, data science and climate finance to design safe water systems that not only function but endure. By focusing on long-term service delivery rather than one-time infrastructure projects, the Mortenson Center is redefining how communities in low-resource settings access clean water.

The center's approach has reached an estimated 5 million people over the past decade. Millions have gained access to clean water through programs the Mortenson Center has directly implemented, and millions more through government, nonprofit and private company programs that have adopted its technologies, monitoring tools and financing models.Ìý

For decades, low-income communities have had little choice but to operate and maintain their own drinking water systems, even as wealthier countries heavily subsidize water for their populations. Unsurprisingly, many of these systems collapse. Pumps break, water becomes unsafe. Local governments and nonprofits often lack the necessary funding and resources to effectively respond.

The Mortenson Center addresses these gaps by integrating performance-based financing with rigorous, real-time data systems. One breakthrough came in 2007, when Professor Thomas launched the first United Nations–accredited programs to generate carbon credits for water treatment. These programs reduced the need to boil water over firewood or fossil fuels—cutting emissions and generating revenue to keep systems operational.

Working with partners, including the Millennium Water Alliance, Swiss nonprofit Helvetas, the Eastern Congo Initiative, Virridy and LifeStraw, the Mortenson Center is currently supporting clean drinking water services for more than one million people across Kenya, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar. These programs are on track to reach three million people by 2030 and generate over one million carbon credits—a key funding mechanism that supports long-term system maintenance. Buyers of these credits include companies such as Mortenson Construction in Minneapolis, which shares its namesake with the center.

Beyond financing, and to ensure clean water actually reaches its intended beneficiaries, the Mortenson Center has also developed and commercialized a suite of satellite-connected monitoring technologies. These include a water quality sensor that utilizes tryptophan-like fluorescence and machine learning to detect E. coli contamination in real time, transforming water safety into a verifiable and measurable outcome. These tools have been deployed in over 10 countries by NGOs, governments and private companies.

At the core of the Mortenson Center’s approach is a belief in locally-driven innovation. Mortenson Center graduate students from Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Ghana are leading research on the technical, financial and policy dimensions of clean water programs, ensuring that future solutions are not only globally informed but locally grounded.

As climate change intensifies pressure on global water systems, the Mortenson Center’s model offers a rare combination of technical innovation, financial sustainability and measurable impact—charting a scalable, sustainable path to clean water for millions still in need.