Life From Water and Mohannad Hesham
Evidence-led work in water, climate and applied AI, Egypt and East Africa, since 2011
Approach
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 local constraint decides the solution, not the technology.
Evaluations, as implementing partner
- 2023 – 25. Household water treatment, randomised controlled trial, with Brown, San Andrés, J-PAL and the Sawiris Foundation. Published 2025: 91% adoption of filtered water that keeps the local taste, and 61% higher willingness to pay than for chlorinated water.
- Since 2023. Climate adaptation in agriculture, randomised controlled trial with 1,500 wheat and maize farmers, with CERDI, CNRS, J-PAL and partners. 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.
- 2025 – 26. Health effects of safe water, impact evaluation, with Stanford University. In progress. Results are not yet published.
From pilot to second phase
Life From Water ran the pilot phase of Water is Life for the Sawiris Foundation, and J-PAL MENA evaluated it. On that result the 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.
Policy
Founding 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, part of J-PAL’s Air and Water Labs with Community Jameel.
Responsible AI in practice
- A paper on WaterEye, under AUC’s MENA Observatory on Responsible AI (in progress)
- A bilingual AI governance curriculum (built, not yet public)
- Tools in field use: crop diagnosis over WhatsApp in Garre; an Egyptian Arabic assistant for donors
- AI for Development working session, co-organised with J-PAL MENA, September 2026
At a glance
- Founded
- 2011, registered in Egypt 2014 (No. 9575)
- Also
- Life From Water e.V., Germany (2017); Life From Water Canada, registered charity (2021)
- Team
- Twenty staff, five trustees, chaired by Amira Ali
- Works in
- Egypt and East Africa
- Board
- Co-founder and board member, Specialised Egyptian Federation for Water and Wastewater
Recognition
- Ashoka Fellow, elected 2024
- Misr El Kheir Award, first place, 2025
- World Bank and Wharton, Ideas for Action, global winner 2020
- ClimateLaunchpad, global first place, resilience track
- Perplexity Business Fellowship, 2025
Ways to work together
- Programme funding for water and climate adaptation
- Implementing partner for evaluations
- Capacity programmes for NGOs
- Applied and responsible AI in development