Help Clean the World’s Water
By HEATHER BOURBEAU
This sidebar is a supplement to Precious Drops
As the activists in my story, “Precious Drops,” amply demonstrate, there are a great many ways that clean drinking water can be provided to the millions who need it—with systems that are more practical and affordable than ever before. It’s just a matter of spreading the technology. If you’re interested in helping, here are five good places to start.
- WHO: The World Health Organization works with governments and other partners to ensure highest attainable level of health, including water and sanitation, for all people.
- UNICEF: UNICEF’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) team works in over 100 countries worldwide to improve water and sanitation services, as well as basic hygiene practices.
- CAWST: CAWST provides technical training and consulting, and acts as a center of expertise in water and sanitation for the poor in developing countries.
- WaterAid: WaterAid is an international organization whose mission is to transform the lives of the poorest and most marginalized people by improving access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene.
- Potters for Peace: Potters for Peace is a Colorado-based non-profit with a two-prong mission. One is to bring ceramic skills to subsistence potters in Central America; the other is to create factories around the world that make affordable, household ceramic water filters.
- Aquaya: The Aquaya Institute is a non-profit research and consulting organization dedicated to improving health in the developing world and delivering the knowledge and tools required to achieve universal access to safe water.
- Safe Water Network: The Safe Water Network, co-founded by the late actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, sponsors research, field initiatives, and a variety of workshops to promote water self-sufficiency in the developing world. The organization’s work thus far has concentrated on Ghana and India.
- Last, if you want some additional facts and context on why developing nations are in such need of clean water, and the effects of this problem, here is a good overview, by Anna Kučírková, who writes frequently about clean water issues for Connect for Water.
Heather Bourbeau has written for The Economist, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy and The New York Times.
© 2023 Heather Bourbeau. All rights reserved. Under exclusive license to Craftsmanship, LLC. Unauthorized copying or republication of any part of this article is prohibited by law.
