ask to use the bathroom and they’d go,
Oh, no, we don’t have bathrooms—we
practice open defecation.
SG: Were there any celebrities you had
in mind?
MD: I thought it would be funny if it
were at Jimmy Kimmel’s house. [Editor’s
note: That line got a laugh because for
nearly a decade Damon and talk show
host Kimmel have pulled pranks on each
other and pretended to be feuding.]
SG: So the world is full of important
causes, lots of things that you can spend
your time and energy and money on.
Why this mission?
MD: I started to look at issues of extreme
poverty and wanted to get involved;
water and sanitation just undergirded
everything. It was just so massive, and
I didn’t hear anybody talking about it.
It’s just endlessly fascinating and vast-
ly complex, and there’s no kind of one
silver bullet that’s going to fix it.
SG: So where are you starting?
MD: I partnered with [engineer and
social entrepreneur] Gary White, and
we co-founded Water.org. It’s basically
using the concepts of microfinance and
tilting it towards water and sanitation:
We’re providing loans for people to con-
nect to a water utility or build a latrine
for their house. We’ve now reached
5.5 million people, and we’re going to hit
2.5 million [more] just this year.
SG: One of the things that our writer ran
into in reporting the story was that there
were so many cultural inhibitions—for
example, that in parts of the world peo-
ple liked going outside. They thought it
was cleaner to go away from your house,
to go off into a field.
MD: Yeah, if you don’t have pipes to
carry the waste away, then that’s true.
And so if you go to India, for instance,
you’ll find these giant fields where the
entire community is practicing open
defecation. But that is changing, and
it’s changing really rapidly, I think, in
large part because of the young people.
:ULWHU(OL]DEHWK5R\WHDQG
SKRWRJUDSKHU$QGUHD%UXFH
document sanitation prob-
OHPVLQWKHGHYHORSLQJZRUOG
LQWKHVWRU\Ţ$3ODFHWR*Rţ
RQSDJH RIWKLVLVVXH
Visit Water.org to learn more
DERXWWKHRUJDQL]DWLRQŠV
HƂRUWVWRLQFUHDVHDFFHVV
to safe water and sanitation
LQWKHGHYHORSLQJZRUOG‘2.4 BILLION
PEOPLE LACK
ADEQUATE
ACCESS TO
SANITATION.
MORE PEOPLE
HAVE A CELL
PHONE THAN
A TOILET.’
MATT DAMONSusan Goldberg, Editor in ChiefSG: It’s interesting you should mention
young people. One of the places we went
to report our story was Vietnam, and the
problem is turning around because the
kids are going to school and there are
toilets in the school. And they’re going
home to their parents and saying, “This
is what we should do.”
MD: Yes, right, that’s exactly right.SG: One of the things I wonder about is
this: The United Nations has said that
by 2030 it is a goal that there not be
open defecation. Do you think there’s
any way we could come close to that?
MD: Definitely by 2030.
SG: That’s only 13 years.
MD: I know. But it’s happening rapidly.SG: You mentioned that in doing this
work, you hear moving stories. What
kind of stories are people telling you?
MD: Well, there was a 13-year-old girl,
and my oldest was 13 at the time, so I
really related to this kid. It was in
Haiti, and we’d helped bring water
to this village that hadn’t had it. And
this 13-year-old was no longer going to
have to scavenge for water three to four
hours every day.
I said, “What are you going to do
with all this extra time? Are you going
to have more time for homework?” And
she looked at me and she goes, “I don’t
need more time for homework. I’m the
smartest kid in my class.” I knew she was
telling the truth, so I was just like, “All
right, hot shot, well what’re you going to
do with this extra time?” And she looked
at me and she said, “I’m gonna play.”
It just buckled me because kids
shouldn’t be burdened with these things.
Those kids should be playing. That’s
what our kids think about, and it’s what
these kids should be thinking about.
***
Thank you for reading National
Geographic.