Colombia - Beyond Flagship: Coffee for Clean water

By purchasing our Colombian Sucafina Originals – Bochica, Huitaca and Tumbaga – you are supporting a project that focuses on building water filtration systems in coffee farming communities in Colombia. As part of our Beyond Flagship program, this initiative supports advancement toward our IMPACT Goal of Human Rights. 

Introduction:

Our Coffee for Clean Water project has supplied rural communities in Colombia with easy to operate, community-based water purification plants since 2023. While the participating community changes from year to year, this IMPACT Beyond Flagship Project always has the same goal: to reduce water-borne illnesses in rural communities through easy to operate drinking water treatment plants. 

2024/2025: Sucafina and Local Partners (our Implementing Partner for this project) brought clean drinking water to 300 students from more than 10 communities by installing a water treatment plant at Nuestra Señora del Carmen Educational Institution in Salazar, Norte de Santander.

2023/2024: The project installed a drinking water facility for 70 coffee-farming families in the Los Medios community of Caldas (organized in cooperation with the Cooperativa de Caficultores de Manizales).

The Rationale:

More than 1.6 million people in Colombia, mostly in remote rural areas, lack access to clean, safe water. As a result, waterborne diseases are a major cause of illness. Yet this is entirely preventable: simple, community-managed treatment plants can reduce water-related illnesses from 15% of the population to zero almost overnight.

• 25% of the rural population in Colombia lacks access to safe drinking water.
• Waterborne diseases are a leading cause of illness in rural areas.

Up until recently, ongoing conflict in many areas has made it difficult to implement social development projects like building clean water plants. Now, expanding peace is making it possible to invest in these rural, coffee-growing communities and build essential infrastructure to improve lives. And that’s exactly what Sucafina and Local Partners are focused on.

Project Components:

• Implement a Drinking Water Treatment Plant using appropriate filtration and disinfection technologies. 
• Provide community training to ensure sustainable operation and maintenance of the system.

Outcomes/Impact:

Given the success of the first plant with Los Medios and the second in Salazar, Sucafina and Local Partners will continue identifying new regions and communities that are the best fit for future water plants to continue reaching rural communities.  

• Improved public health by reducing waterborne diseases.
• Empowered communities with the skills to operate and maintain the plant.
• Ensured long-term sustainability of the water supply.

Contribution options:

In addition to built-in contributions made through coffee purchases, roasters and interested partners can make additional contributions to this project. 

Contribution can be in premium in cts/lb or outright donation:

Timeline: 6 months

• 25 families – $20,000 USD
• 50 families - $28,978 USD
• 100 families - $36,886 USD

Get in touch with your trader to start making a difference in your supply chain today.

About Beyond Flagship projects

Beyond Flagship Projects are initiatives linked to IMPACT-verified farmer groups within Sucafina’s direct supply chains. These projects are designed to offer partners a flexible way to support IMPACT goals, create measurable impact and drive meaningful change at contribution levels below the typical minimum threshold for full project sponsorship.

Investments are made through a premium and do not need to be tied directly to coffee produced by the project’s participating farmers. Instead, support is Origin-specific – for example, purchasing Beyond Flagship contributing coffees from Colombia enables investment in Colombia-based IMPACT Beyond projects. This approach increases flexibility, expands the potential for impact at scale and supports more consistent data collection and reporting across supply chains.