The Challenge

"The crisis of our diminishing water resources is just as severe (if less obviously immediate) as any wartime crisis we have ever faced." — Jim Wright, The Coming Water Famine, 1966

The water and sanitation crisis is enormous and pervasive

2.7 billion people live in areas with dangerous, unhealthy water and inadequate sanitation.

1.1 billion people every day consume contaminated water.

40-60 million people of all ages die every year directly or indirectly due to contaminated water.

4-6 million babies between the ages of 0-5 die each year from contaminated water.

Responding sectors differ in their focus

The public sector focuses on large population centers. The corporate sector focuses on shareholder value, with large projects and large money. Charitable organizations have limited resources that impact their capacity to respond to the underlying catastrophe.

The real catastrophe is that 2.7 billion people live in smaller villages and peri-urban/suburban areas with chronic water and sanitation issues that are not considered to be in a catastrophe situation. Fuel and energy supply issues in these areas mean that water and sanitation solutions require non-traditional technology.

Children and women are the primary victims of hardship, sickness and death due to bad water and sanitation.

THIS IS THE REAL WATER AND SANITATION CATASTROPHE!