We have a global water crisis. Over one billion people lack access to safe drinking water.
The health and economic impacts are overwhelming. Over 7,000 children a day are dying because of dirty water. Waterborne disease is the number one health issue in the world, filling 50% of hospital beds globally.
In developing countries, people are forced to choose between sickness
or purchasing expensive packaged or bottled water from untrustworthy
sources. We believe that's an unfair choice. It's also inconvenient
and burdensome, with serious impact to the environment.
Even in middle- and upper-income countries, lack of access to clean water remains a problem and drag on economic development, with contaminants such as arsenic and excess fluoride causing water-related illnesses, cancer and diabetes and resulting in billions of medical costs.
The more we've learned, the more we've become convinced we need to
completely change the paradigm. We support those digging wells and the
need, in certain circumstances, for large water treatment projects and
hope governments will do more to fund them. But, it's time for more
creative and cost-effective solutions. Both well water and tap water
often need to be purified before they're safe to drink. It's more
important than ever that we be willing to look at old problems and find
innovative ways to solve them. The issues of water access, quantity and
quality need to be addressed at the same time.
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