PROTOS aims at facilitating sustainable and empowering development processes that are well integrated in the local cultural and social context and that strive to improve the general well being of the destitute groups in the South. In that view, water is a key element. Given its expertise in this field, PROTOS particularly stands up for equitable, sustainable and participatory water management in the North and the South.

Equitable water management assumes solidarity amongst all users, whereby each individual has the right to sufficient water quantities for a well-balanced human development.

Sustainable water management seeks to optimally use the available water sources without threatening the other users, the environment or the future.

Participatory water management requires the involvement of each individual and community, including disadvantaged groups, providing the opportunity for them to take control of their own future. In this, a fair gender balance has to be respected.

PROTOS wants to achieve these objectives by:

• Supporting participatory development programmes in the South: via an improvement of access to water, and of distribution and/or valorisation of water, PROTOS aims to improve the socio-economic situation of the local population.
• Being a lever: by strengthening the capacities, the vision and the position of organisations that are able to capitalize on the knowledge fostered by these programmes and capable of making profit of this knowledge in the future.
• Stimulating the cooperation between all parties involved in the planning and implementation of local development, including the civil society organisations and the local authorities.
• Stimulating the debate on the equitable, sustainable and participatory water resources management in both the North and the South. The experiences of PROTOS and its partner organisations are able to contribute to this debate.