Mortenson Center innovations delivering clean water to more than 16 million worldwide

Approximately two billion people worldwide rely on drinking water sources contaminated with fecal matter, according to the World Health Organization. That figure has remained stubbornly high, even after decades of international investment and development efforts, as many water systems continue to fail—breaking down, delivering unsafe water or becoming financially unsustainable for the communities they were intended to serve.

The Mortenson Center in Global Engineering & Resilience at the University of Colorado Boulder is building 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 on infrastructure alone, 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, the Center’s approach blends engineering, data science and climate finance to design safe water systems that not only function but also endure. By focusing on long-term service delivery rather than one-time infrastructure projects, the Mortenson Center is redefining how clean water is brought to communities in low-resource settings. 

So far, this approach has reached an estimated 16 million people. More than six million have gained access to clean water through programs the Mortenson Center has directly implemented. An additional ten million have been served through governments, nonprofits and private companies that have adopted its methods—applying its technologies, monitoring tools and financing models in programs around the world. 

For decades, low-income communities have been expected to operate and maintain drinking water systems on their own, even as wealthier countries heavily subsidize water for their populations. Unsurprisingly, many systems collapse. Pumps break, water becomes unsafe and local governments or nonprofits lack the funding and tools to respond.

The Mortenson Center's approach is belief in locally driven innovation.

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 reduce 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.

To ensure clean water actually reaches the people it’s meant to serve, the Mortenson Center has also developed and commercialized a suite of satellite-connected monitoring technologies. These include a water quality sensor that uses tryptophan-like fluorescence and machine learning to detect E. coli contamination in real time, turning water safety into a verifiable, measurable outcome. These tools have been deployed in over ten countries by NGOs, governments and private companies.

At the core of the Mortenson Center’s approach is a belief in locally driven innovation. 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.