“The day after we arrived, we visited a water well. We got up at 5 a.m. because the bus journey would take six hours. It ended up taking even longer because we had two flat tyres along the way. The roads in Malawi are in poor condition. The same can be said for access to drinking water. There is no public water network, so people rely on water sources that are often far from their villages. The water they find is frequently contaminated and causes diarrhoea and other illnesses.” Isabella knew Malawi was a developing country. Experiencing it firsthand was something entirely different. “When we arrived at the water well, I noticed that it is mainly women who collect water. Some are still very young girls. They carry 30-litre containers on their heads and walk back to their villages.”

A Warm Welcome As Sustainability Officer at Quooker, Isabella is closely involved in the “Liter for a Liter” campaign, which we have been running since 2015. For every litre of water saved by Quooker users, we donate one litre of clean drinking water to people living in areas with limited access to water.

The campaign is carried out in partnership with Made Blue and has already resulted in more than three billion litres of donated water. At Made Blue’s invitation, three Quooker colleagues travelled to Malawi in November 2025 to see firsthand where all those litres of water are making a difference. “In the villages we visited, people often welcomed us with singing and dancing,” Isabella recalls. “I was touched by their positivity, especially considering how little they have. The villagers showed us where children go to school—if they are able to attend at all. They showed us where women give birth. And they showed us where they used to collect water before Amref Health Africa—whose projects are funded by Made Blue—installed a water well: a muddy riverbed, far from the village and far from clean.”

What particularly impressed Isabella was the way the long-term sustainability of the project is secured. “Amref trains members of the local community to maintain and repair the well when necessary. To cover these costs, the community contributes a small fee. This system ensures that the entire community takes ownership of the water well.”

Making a Difference “In Malawi, I saw what a single litre of drinking water can mean,” says Isabella. “At home, water simply comes out of the tap—chilled, sparkling, boiling, whatever you want. There, people are happy if the water is clean and doesn’t make them sick.” Having clean drinking water nearby prevents many illnesses and significantly reduces the distance people need to walk to collect water. “That saves a tremendous amount of time—time that can be spent on things like going to school.” The trip gave Isabella and her fellow travellers—Quooker founder Walter Peteri and Sustainability Manager Sam Smeets—even more motivation to continue the campaign and explore ways to make the support even more effective. Now back at Quooker’s headquarters in Ridderkerk, Isabella is working on a plan to raise even more awareness of the “Liter for a Liter” campaign.

“Quooker is inseparably linked to water, and access to clean drinking water is an important issue. We are doing our part, and we want to involve our dealers, consumers and colleagues even more. The more litres we donate, the more people we can help.”,

Published on 08-12-2025