Max Social Enterprise Ltd. (MSE) is a Bangladesh-based social enterprise delivering safe, reliable, and affordable drinking water to rural and coastal communities through decentralized piped water systems. Established in 2019, MSE operates as a 99% Dutch-owned social enterprise, combining international governance standards with deep local implementation experience to improve public health, climate resilience, and long-term access to safe water.
MSE operates under its brand Max TapWater, through which households are connected to piped water directly at home. To date, MSE has built 100 Max TapWater grids, supplying safe water to approximately 5,000 households. By 2026, the enterprise aims to make 130 grids operational, continuing to scale access year by year.
MSE’s water grids are intentionally simple, robust, and locally built, using straightforward technology and locally sourced materials. This ensures ease of operation, maintenance, and replication. The innovation lies in MSE’s entrepreneurial service delivery model, where each grid serves small clusters of households typically 45 to 80 households per grids and is operated together with a local entrepreneur who can co-invest. This model creates ownership, accountability, and financial sustainability at the community level.
The enterprise’s approach has been refined through years of learning from test sites across Bangladesh. These experiences demonstrated that communities are willing to pay for piped water at home when the service is reliable and affordable, confirming that a business-driven approach is essential for sustainable rural water services.
MSE was founded and incubated within the innovation ecosystem of Max Foundation, a Dutch non-profit organisation dedicated to improving child health and wellbeing through sustainable, community-based, and entrepreneurial programmes. Max Foundation provides the long-term social vision, strategic direction, and innovation leadership that guide MSE’s work, ensuring alignment with SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 13 (Climate Action), and national priorities such as Bangladesh’s Delta Plan 2100.