Water.org is a nonprofit organization that provides access to safe water and sanitation. The organization has transformed hundreds of communities in Africa, South Asia, and Central America.
Founded in 2009, and based in Kansas City, Missouri, water.org describes the issues it is addressing, and its goals this way:
The water and sanitation problem in the developing world is far too big for charity alone, says water.org’s website. Our vision: Safe water and the dignity of a toilet for all, in our lifetime.
Here are some facts about the worldwide water crisis:
More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world.
Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.
Of the 60 million people added to the world’s towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements (i.e. slums) with no sanitation facilities.
780 million people lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people.
“[The water and sanitation] crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.”
An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the average person in a developing country slum uses for an entire day.
Over 2.5X more people lack water than live in the United States.
More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.