884 million people on the planet drinking dirty water .

The Problem

The problem is the great need for sustainable clean water solutions in Africa and other places of extreme poverty.
More specifically, we see this problem made up of dirty water and  broken pumps .

1) Dirty Water

	•	884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world's population. (WHO/UNICEF)
	•	1.4 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to around 4,000 deaths a day or one every 20 seconds. (WHO)

Clearly, dirty water is killing people, mainly children, at an alarming rate. People in the developing world rely on streams, rivers, and hand-dug wells for their drinking water. However, these sources are easily contaminated. Around 90% of untreated sewage is discharged into rivers in the developing world. (UN)

Drilling boreholes and installing hand pumps has been a good solution for clean water. In many parts of Africa, we can find water by drilling 100+ feet into the ground. These aquifers provide clean and uncontaminated water that is brought to the surface in a closed system with a hand pump. However, as you read more, you'll see that hand pumps are not a one-time, fix it and forget it solution.

2) Broken Pumps

There are over 350,000 hand pumps in Africa. Depending on the country, 35% to 65% of them are broken. Often well-meaning western organizations raise money to drill to new wells. They install hand pumps and sometimes teach local villagers how to maintain them. They then move on to other villages and other countries. The problem is that these hand pumps last a few months to a few years depending on how much use they get. Without a long-term sustainability plan, they are wasting precious resources and feeling good about their success all along the way. However, the communities are now forced back to the dirty water sources and the health benefits of clean water are quickly erased.

Unfortunately, this reality is partially due to the flow of funds to new well projects at the expense of sustainable solutions. It's easier for a water charity to interest donors in sponsoring a new well with their name on a plaque than it is to fix a broken well. This results in organizations that promote millions of people served by new wells while they leave a wake of broken wells behind them