Where every drop counts: tackling rural Africa’s water crisis

In rural Africa, ‘water poverty’ can destroy lives and livelihoods. Children under the age of five are especially susceptible to waterborne diseases. While a broken waterpipe in London may be a temporary inconvenience, a failed well in sub-Saharan Africa is potentially catastrophic. And this is a catastrophe that is spreading across the continent, where an estimated 50,000 water supply points have effectively died. The root cause is the water community’s failure to plan for~maintenance of the infrastructure in a systematic way, creating a massive drag on meeting the Millennium Development Goal target on water and sanitation.