WATER SHORTAGE SITUATION POINT

Although 1.8 billion people now have access to basic drinking water services as a result of progress since 2000, yet there are still significant disparities in these services' accessibility, availability, and quality.

Worldwide, one in every four individuals lacks access to properly managed drinking water. In 2020, only 39% of Africans were drinking water that was safely handled. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 794 million people lacked access to clean drinking water. According to UNICEF, most African nations have made poor progress against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in order to meet them by 2030, their efforts would need to be multiplied by 12 times. One of the most water-stressed nations is India, which has 18% of the world's population but just 4% of its water supply. In China, drilling for groundwater has contributed to the country's water supply becoming tainted: according to estimates, 80–90% of China's groundwater is unusable, and half of its aquifers are too polluted to draw water even for agricultural purposes.

Of the world's desalination plants, 70% are in the Middle East. Desalination is an energy intensive process that produces poisonous brine from concentrated salt, which is discharged back into the oceans and disrupts marine ecosystems.

WATER PURIFICATION: LOW TECH - BIG IMPACT

An effort is being made in Africa to supply individuals in rural regions without access to dependable water sources with clean, safe drinking water through the water kiosk program. Several programs, like the Ben Affleck-sponsored Asili, Swiss Fresh Water, and 1001 Fountains, work to better the lives and health of communities by supplying them with water kiosks that are both affordable and accessible.

These water kiosk initiatives offer a number of advantages. They first give people access to healthy drinking water, which helps to lower the prevalence of diseases like cholera, typhoid, and dysentery that are transmitted through contaminated water.

Second, they allow women and especially children to focus on schooling and other useful pursuits by reducing the time and effort needed to fetch water from far-off sources.

Third, the initiatives present local businesspeople with chances to operate and maintain the kiosks, which support the growth of regional businesses.

The communities that the 1001 Fountains initiative serves have benefited greatly from it. Almost 800,000 people now have access to clean water, and over 300 jobs have been created for local business owners.

In parallel the Aquaful group effort employs a cutting-edge strategy to provide access to clean water by installing water filtration devices in public locations like schools, marketplaces, and hospitals.

To ensure that the water is safe for drinking and cooking, these filtration systems use a multi-stage filtration process.

Aquaful focuses on educating people about water sanitation and hygiene in addition to giving access to clean water.

The initiative offers local people, particularly women and children, training, and education programs on the value of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene practices.

A fundamental point is their use of solar energy to run the filtration systems, which lessens its reliance on the grid and increases its sustainability.

The poorest communities in Africa will increasingly have access to clean, safe drinking water thanks to all these activities, including the water kiosks, three primary organizations, and Aquaful.

For the sake of the poorest members of humanity, let's hope that they will be heard, helped, and given adequate funding.