For immediate release: October 18, 2010

Bozeman, Mont.--More than three million people, many of them children, die each year as a result of preventable water borne illnesses. Now, two leading nonprofit organizations active in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) have signed a formal partnership agreement to increase the reach of WASH education around the world to improve the health of people in the developing world.

The Project WET Foundation and Water School, a Canadian nonprofit that works to provide clean water solutions worldwide, plan to work together to raise awareness about the importance of WASH.

"The partnership between Project WET and Water School will improve the lives of children in developing countries by bringing together the excellent, simple water purification tools of Water School with award-winning education materials that help children understand the daily actions needed to stay healthy,"says Project WET Foundation Senior Vice President John Etgen. "With this collaboration, we will reach many more schools than we ever could have reached alone."

"Our goal since day one was to partner with other organizations around the world in ensuring that no child suffers or dies from unsafe drinking water," says Bob Dell, President of Water School. "Education is the only way to break the poverty cycle and children have to be in school to be educated. Our partnership with Project WET helps us ensure healthy children attend school and can build a knowledge base to avoid future illness in their own lives and those of their families."

Both Water School and the Project WET Foundation are working throughout the world to educate children, parents, educators and communities about WASH-and to empower action that changes lives on the ground. Project WET provides educators with engaging, hands-on WASH education materials and training, while Water School helps communities implement low-cost, low-tech solutions for water purification. In both instances, projects are implemented through schools-and the results have been dramatic.

At the Lake Victoria School in Uganda--designated a Project WET Healthy Habits Model School--hand washing rates increased 800 percent following implementation of the Project WET WASH education materials, illness-related absences decreased and school pass rates increased. In Kisoro, Uganda; Water School implemented a pilot water disinfection project that resulted in safer water for over 400,000 people in East Africa, increased school attendance, and combined with a rain water harvesting program, resulted in the closure of Kisoro Hospital's dysentery ward. The new partnership between Project WET and Water School promises to amplify those positive outcomes.

About Project WET: Since 1984, Project WET, an award-winning American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has dedicated itself to the mission of reaching children, parents, teachers and community members of the world with water education.

About Water School: Founded in 2007, Water School is a Canadian incorporated non-profit organization (US 501(c)(3) in progress) with a mission to provide simple, safe, strategic, and sustainable clean water solutions to the developing world.