“Well, Well, Well…Do Wells Clear the Bar?” by Zach Gilfix

A handful of us from EA Salt Lake City are dipping our toes into program evaluation, looking at the impact of an organization run by one of our members. This post highlights the progress we’ve made so far, as well as a number of questions that we’re hoping EA folks with a bit more experience can help us answer. TLDR: We’ve found that digging wells in Niger easily clears Open Philanthropy's “Bar”, and we are looking for feedback to see if our analysis makes sense. The Organization: Wells4Wellness Wells4Wellness has been operating since 2009, digging (and importantly, maintaining) wells across Niger. Niger has one of the highest rates of death from unsafe water sources in the world at around 80 deaths per 100,000 people per year. Most of those deaths are children under 5 dying from diarrhea. A majority of the country is also sitting on top [...] ---Outline:(00:39) The Organization: Wells4Wellness(02:04) Our Current DALY Estimates(05:21) Costs and ROI(07:51) Comparison to Chlorination(09:55) Time Horizon and Discounting(10:41) Our Questions--- First published: September 12th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Q36besmzrHfNPadSA/well-well-well-do-wells-clear-the-bar --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. ---Images from the article:Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

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