Did you know that as of 2017, 785 million people worldwide lacked access to even the most basic drinking water service? And, around 2 billion people were reliant on contaminated drinking water?

These are some scary numbers, but there are charities out there trying to expand access to clean water around the world. Let’s go through some of the initiatives and what you can do to help today.

Creating Infrastructure

Simply shipping a bunch of water to developing countries isn’t a great way to help the water crisis. It’s also not great for the environment.

Instead, most initiatives work on creating infrastructure to provide good, clean water, such as digging wells.

Many charities also train local people in building and maintaining this infrastructure. This approach is a much more ethical and sustainable way to contribute to water initiatives. Plus, these can create jobs in developing countries!

Many of these charities work with the government or local organizations to get input on how to best address their water needs. This is also a great way to make sure they don’t step on any toes.

They also usually try to take sustainable, environmentally friendly approaches — after all, you don’t want to solve one problem and start another!

Technology for Clean Water

Clean water technology, like the Culligan water softener, is an important part of creating clean water supplies. That’s especially true when infrastructure is lacking.

Desalination processes and technology, which remove salt from water, are also important parts of creating more sources of safe and clean water.

New innovations provide even more avenues to provide safe access to clean water for people in developing countries. Some examples include solar-powered water filtration, LifeStraw, and fog catchers.

Water isn’t just important when it comes to drinking water, also. Water is required for personal hygiene, along with sanitation services such as waste management. Creating technology that can manage these services or do them more effectively is an important part of many different clean water initiatives.

Beyond Just Water

When looking at charities, it’s important to look at the work they do, and make sure that the solution they propose isn’t a stopgap measure. That’s why initiatives such as Drop In The Bucket are so great.

Drop in the Bucket isn’t just creating water infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa. They’re also creating initiatives to increase school enrollment and gender equality. Some of these initiatives include educating children about the importance of clean water.

When the only safe water source is located far away, women and girls are the ones who have to get it. This causes them to miss school and lose out on their education.

Initiatives like Drop the Bucket recognize that clean water isn’t an isolated issue and that it is influenced by related issues, like gender-based violence or discrimination.

Access To Clean Water is a Human Right

Access to clean water is necessary for humans to live and be healthy, so it’s important to support initiatives that expand access. Hopefully, you now have enough information to start helping out!

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