Santa Clara University

Today, March 22nd is the 19th annual World Water Day. The United Nations General Assembly established World Water Day in 1993 as a way to focus attention on the importance of fresh water, and each year chooses a specific theme to emphasize. This year’s theme is water and food security.

 

While many are celebrating the UN announcement that we have reached the Millenium Development Goals’ drinking water target ahead of schedule (89% of the world’s population with access to “improved drinking water sources”), there is still much work to be done in giving equitable access to water for all.

 

One group making strides in this arena is social entrepreneurs – leaders of non-profit and for-profit organizations pursuing the social mission of alleviating poverty.  In our 9 years of experience with The Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI^TM) at Santa Clara University, we have trained hundreds of social entrepreneurs to help them build and scale sustainable organizations that solve problems for poor people around the world. Many have set up organizations designed to tackle the challenges of access to and reliability of safe drinking water, efficiently using water for agriculture and food security, and safe and healthy access to improved sanitation.  Read on to learn more about their efforts as we celebrate them on World Water Day. 

 

Though we have met the MDG’s target goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water, there is still a great disparity between which people have access and which do not. The number of people in rural areas using an unimproved water source in 2010 was five times greater than in urban areas. On average, women in rural Africa and Asia have to walk 6km a day simply to obtain water.

 

The drinking water target is measured by the number of people with access to “improved” water sources, such as a piped supply, borehole, or protected well. It does not account for whether these sources are reliable, sustainable, or even functional. As long as a borehole exists, it is counted - whether or not water comes out when you turn the tap. In order for water technology to be useful, it must be reliable, and people must have the ability to have it fixed if it breaks.

 

 
Agriculture

The MDG focuses on sustainable access to clean drinking water and sanitation; however, there are essential uses for water that are not part of the drinking water target.  Water is imperative for every form of food provision--feeding livestock, growing rice and grains, to fish farming. In fact, irrigation accounts for close to 70% of human water usage. Having enough clean drinking water for each individual does not necessarily mean there is enough access to water for farming, industry, sanitation or health - problems which greatly affect a country’s ability to develop.

 

The MDG to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to basic sanitation appears to be off-track.  Poor water sanitation is responsible for the death of 1.8 billion people a year. Unclean water and poor sanitation is the 2nd biggest killer of children, and related illnesses often prevent children from attending school.