Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The marketplace connects buyers (businesses, governments, or individuals) with verified water stewardship projects. Buyers can browse projects, purchase water credits, and retire them to claim their contribution to water sustainability. Sellers (project developers) list credits generated from UWR certified initiatives.

Projects undergo third-party audits to validate their impact, using methodologies approved by UWR (www.uwaterregistry.io). Metrics like rainfall data for rainwater harvesting, water savings, ecosystem restoration, or improved water quality are quantified and monitored to ensure transparency.

Examples include:

• Activities or measures which enhance the sustainable yield in areas where over-development has depleted the aquifer.
• Activities or measures for conservation and storage of excess surface water for future requirements and conservation of freshwater related ecosystems and wetland protection.
• Activities or measures that improve the quality of existing ground water through dilution with rainwater runoff.
• Activities or measures that remove bacteriological and other impurities from seawater, sewage waste water or contaminated water bodies, so that water is made suitable/fit for re-use and recycling purposes.
• Activities or conservation measures taken to recycle and reuse water, spentwash, wastewater etc across or within specific industrial processes and systems.

Water credits are tracked via the UWR registry system to ensure each is uniquely serialized, publicly recorded, and retired upon purchase.

You can purchase UWR verified water credits via the marketplace. This marketplace allows any buyer worldwide to purchase high-integrity water credits in a simple and transparent way. Retirements are made in the UWR public registry in real-time for full traceability, and certificates are issued to document the retirement of water credits. Alternatively, buyers can also choose not to retire their credits, but hold them in their UWR buyer accounts for future use or other purposes. Once the buyer funds reach the UWR’s bank account, the water credits are either publicly retired on the UWR registry and a retirement certificate is sent to the buyer, or the credits are sent to the buyer account. Hence the delivery of “goods” is immediate.

Any credits purchased cannot be re-traded or relisted by the buyer on the marketplace for sale again, since the marketplace is not operated as a trading exchange. Hence only UWR seller accounts are designed by default to list credits on the marketplace.

Proceeds of every sale benefit project developers directly, enabling them to maintain and expand their project activity and deliver more climate and sustainable development impact.

Buyers can choose either PayPal or the linked payment systems for all purchases. The seller typically lists their credits for prices that includes local taxes where applicable. UWR does not charge the buyer any transaction fees. UWR sends the proceeds of every sale to the seller after deduction of variable foreign exchange fees, payment gateway service fees and taxes where applicable.

UWR, as the issuing authority for the water credits, cannot be party to any marketplace trades or be involved in setting prices for any trade. UWR charges a fixed credit listing fee payable by the seller directly from the registry account linked to such sellers. This listing fee covers administrative costs in maintaining the platform.

Always remember, climate change is a water crisis! All water footprint results in the calculator should be considered an estimate. The water footprint calculation in the marketplace includes your tap water use and the “virtual water” used to produce your food and home goods and is calculated on a yearly (365 days) basis.

What you eat makes up at least one-half of your total water footprint, thanks to the large volume of “virtual water” needed to grow and produce your food. Check out https://watercalculator.org/water-footprint-of-food-guide/ for a glimpse into the water footprint of food items.

Some of our assumptions in designing the calculator are as follows:

• For daily showers, we’ve assumed low-flow showerheads, which flows at about 9.4 liters per minute. (Example: user enters minutes taken per shower, output is calculated for the year as minutes x 9.4 x 365). Each bath is assumed at 265 liters to fill the tub to the brim.
• Each time you run the faucet, while you brush your teeth or wash your hands etc, we’ve assumed that you’re wasting about 5.6 liters per minute.
• The total quantity of water used in flushing toilets per person is assumed to be 11.3 liters per day.