Until Friday, I had not heard the term "hydrophilanthropy" but after just a few minutes of listening to Dave Kreamer describe student and other volunteer efforts around the world, I got it.
Dave is professor of hydrology at UN Las Vegas, and the one who coined the term hydrophilanthropy. He opened the session on "Adventures in Hydroanthropology" at the AHS Annual Symposium in Tucson on Friday. And he is the editor of an issue of the Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education (JCWRE) on the topic of Hydrophilanthropy and Education.
In his intro to the journal issue, he notes that the term describes "the altruistic efforts of colleagues to provide sustainable, clean water for people and ecosystems worldwide."
What I heard was that it's not just the equipment, training, technology - successful projects have to understand the local political and cultural situations.