Evidence-led work in water, climate and applied AI
Life From Water has worked across Egypt and East Africa since 2011. Its programmes are evaluated through randomised trials in which it is the implementing partner. The universities design the studies and publish the results, and Mohannad co-designs and runs the field side.
Life From Water builds clean water access, treatment stations, wells, pipelines and climate adaptation, together with the community operation and maintenance that keep them running. The choice between household connections, network extensions, treatment stations, wells, riverbank filtration and solar is made by the local constraint, not by the technology.
The same approach runs through the AI work. It starts with what an organisation is trying to achieve, and which part of that AI can help with.
3,105interventionsAcross 259 villages in 8 governorates of Egypt
79stationsTreatment stations built, plus 30 wells and 19 river-bank filtration wells
2,466connectionsHousehold water connections, and 28.6 km of mains
28.6km of mainsLaid for household connections
Laying the main, house by house. Life From Water, Egypt
Evaluations
Life From Water is the implementing partner on each study. The principal investigators design them and publish the results.
2023 – 25
Household water treatment, randomised controlled trial
Brown University and Universidad de San Andrés, with J-PAL and the Sawiris Foundation
Published as “Familiar Taste, Safer Choices” (Buccione and Rossi, CEMFI working paper, 2025). Filtered water that keeps the taste of local water reached 91% adoption, against a ceiling of about 50% documented for chlorinated water, and people were willing to pay 61% more for it. The paper thanks Life From Water, and Mohannad Hesham by name, for implementing the study. Read the paper
Climate adaptation in agriculture, randomised controlled trial with 1,500 wheat and maize farmers
CERDI and CNRS in France, the University of Antwerp, J-PAL, Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture and its Central Administration for Agricultural Extension, and the National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development
Ongoing. Life From Water built the climate-resilient farming course and trained the extension agents who teach it to farmers in Assiut. Results are not yet published.
Implementing partner
2025 – 26
Health effects of safe water, impact evaluation
Stanford University
In progress. Results are not yet published.
In progress
What the evaluations led to
PilotLife From Water ran the pilot phase of Water is Life for the Sawiris Foundation.
EvaluatedJ-PAL MENA evaluated the pilot.
ScaledThe Foundation and Schneider Electric signed a second phase: solar power and remote monitoring on around fifty community treatment units, for more than twenty-five thousand families in Minya, Assiut, Sohag and Qena.
PolicyFounding partner of HAPIE, the Hub of Advanced Policy Innovation for the Environment, launched at Egypt’s National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development on 18 June 2025 as part of J-PAL’s Air and Water Labs with Community Jameel.
With Prof. Dr Hani Sewilam, Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, at the Institut français, Cairo
He also co-founded, in 2020 with 28 other Egyptian water organisations, and sits on the board of the Specialised Egyptian Federation for Water and Wastewater, another HAPIE founding partner and a member of UN-Habitat’s Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance since January 2025.
Mohannad Hesham decides where AI should not be used before a project starts. Human review is matched to the stakes: light for internal drafts, and mandatory for anything that affects people’s rights, money, safety or opportunities. Every AI system has a named owner, and no decision is ever attributed to “the AI”. Final judgment, relationships and trust, safeguarding and accountability are never delegated to it.
The AI for Development working session he co-organised with J-PAL MENA, the American University in Cairo
Research · in progress
A paper on WaterEye
Supported by the Access to Knowledge for Development Center at the American University in Cairo, under the MENA Observatory on Responsible AI. WaterEye reads analogue gauges from a photograph; its accuracy has not yet been measured.
Curriculum · built, not public
AI governance course
A free bilingual course on governing AI use inside an organisation, built for Impact Anchor.
Training · 2026
Prompt-injection risk
A day with the IT department at Hassan Allam Properties on how hidden instructions can steer a model, and what a team has to check because of it.
Convening · September 2026
AI for Development working session
Co-organised with J-PAL MENA at the American University in Cairo, for development organisations already using AI or piloting a use case.
Built · live
Garre Agriculture Assistant
Crop diagnosis over WhatsApp in Garre, on phones farmers already own, serving a village of around five thousand people.
Attended · September 2026
Global Forum on the Ethics of AI
The fourth forum, in Riyadh, convened by UNESCO with SDAIA and ICAIRE.
Organisations and governance
There are three separate organisations, and people often assume they are one thing under three names.
Life From Water
Founder and CEO, since 2011
Clean water, agriculture and climate resilience in Egypt and East Africa. Twenty staff, and a board of five trustees chaired by Amira Ali.
Egypt
Registered 2014, No. 9575, Ministry of Social Solidarity
Germany
Life From Water e.V., Amtsgericht Nürnberg, VR 202113, 2017
Canada
Life From Water Canada, registered charity since 2021, BN 77182 4711 RR0001
The Misr El Kheir Award handover, Cairo. First place, won by Life From Water, 2025
Research and evaluation
J-PAL MENA
Brown University
Universidad de San Andrés
Stanford University
CERDI and CNRS
University of Antwerp
Foundations and government
Sawiris Foundation
National Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development
Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture
EcoCiv, funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Recognition
Ashoka Fellow, 2024
World Bank and Wharton, Ideas for Action, 2020
ClimateLaunchpad, global first place, resilience track
Misr El Kheir Award, first place, 2025
Partnership models
Each of these has been done before. The note under each says where.
Programme funding
Water access, treatment and climate adaptation delivered with community operation and maintenance.
As with Water is Life for the Sawiris Foundation, and its second phase with Schneider Electric. Past programme funders also include the Misr El Kheir Foundation, for nine riverbank filtration wells, and the Embassy of Ireland, for three wells.
Implementing partner for evaluations
Field teams, sampling, data collection and holding an intervention faithful over the study period.
As with J-PAL, Brown, Stanford, CERDI and CNRS.
Capacity programmes for NGOs
Strategy, theory of change and pitching, with one-to-one work and written feedback on every plan.
As with six water organisations in Ghana and Uganda through EcoCiv.
Applied and responsible AI in development
Tools built for field conditions and working sessions for organisations adopting AI.
As with WaterEye, the Garre assistant, and the J-PAL MENA working session.
The email opens with a few questions that help him reply usefully. Concept notes, calls for proposals and terms of reference are welcome as attachments.
To mohannad@lifefromwater.orgSubject Partnership enquiry
Organisation:
What your organisation funds or studies:
Region or country of interest:
What you would like to explore together:
Timeline or funding cycle, if known:
