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The 71% statistic is from all water sources. The difficulty is easily accessible freshwater sources, so cheap desalination seems to be critical. "Freshwater ma

The 71% statistic is from all water sources. The difficulty is easily accessible freshwater sources, so cheap desalination seems to be critical. "Freshwater makes up a very small fraction of all water on the planet. While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people." http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/ http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshw...

dogma1138 10y ago
It's not that simple, you can't give people water without a sewage and water waste management just look at what happened in Africa. We had charities digging wells and what it did is make it worse for many many people. They had running water and with it came toilets with no treatment. Fecal mater and water don't mix in nature it decomposes in drainage ditches it becomes a hotspot for bacteria and parasites. A lot of the feel good water projects in Africa didn't pan out that well for the local population, they often bring deseases and contaminate the local water supply, brake down and actually reduce the water security. If we want to give people access to readily available water we have to give them a full solution including what to do with the waste water and how to safely treat and recycle it.
- jacalata 10y ago
  Interesting, I've seen criticism of well projects in Africa but more about having them run dry/break with no funds for maintenance. Do you have any sources I could read for disease/problems caused by working wells?
joshuak 10y ago
Ok, but isn't that still a transportation problem at the core? With the addition of a minimum quality requirement?

dogma1138 10y ago

It's not that simple, you can't give people water without a sewage and water waste management just look at what happened in Africa. We had charities digging wells and what it did is make it worse for many many people. They had running water and with it came toilets with no treatment. Fecal mater and water don't mix in nature it decomposes in drainage ditches it becomes a hotspot for bacteria and parasites. A lot of the feel good water projects in Africa didn't pan out that well for the local population, they often bring deseases and contaminate the local water supply, brake down and actually reduce the water security. If we want to give people access to readily available water we have to give them a full solution including what to do with the waste water and how to safely treat and recycle it.

jacalata 10y ago
Interesting, I've seen criticism of well projects in Africa but more about having them run dry/break with no funds for maintenance. Do you have any sources I could read for disease/problems caused by working wells?

joshuak 10y ago

Ok, but isn't that still a transportation problem at the core? With the addition of a minimum quality requirement?