The need for clean water is staggering. A visit to any one of the poor villages where people live in extreme poverty is an amazing revelation to the dire need for change in the sources for drinking water. It is good that UN and World Bank and other international bodies are working hard to bridge the the gap.
According to Dr. Gleick more than 1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and 2.6 billion are without access to adequate sanitation. One of the goals of United Nations is to reduce this proportion by half for people without access to water supply and sanitation by 2015. Dr. G has his doubts that these goals will be met. Especially for sanitation. He estimates that even if they are met an estimated 35 million to 75 million people will still die in the next 20 years (2000-2020) due to preventable water-related diseases.
Naandi Foundation in India is one such organization that is stepping up to address the need in India. They say dirty drinking water causes the death for roughly 200 children per hour below age 5. For those living in extreme poverty below a dollar a day average income the following modes are not affordable such as centralized treatment, piped water systems, bottled water, or fuel to boil drinking water. Naandi is run by Dr. Anji Reddy - Founder Naandi Foundation and The founder-Chairman of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Manoj Kumar - CEO Naandi Foundation former Robert McNamara Fellow of The World Bank.
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