Past Attempts
Although a lot of progress has been made to improve clean water accessibility, a lot of work remains to be done. In 2018, the UN launched the Water Action Decade and outlined a series of goals pertaining to clean water accessibility, water pollution, and better water management [4]. Work by the UN and other organizations has been able to accomplish a lot, but there are still problems with these implementations. In this section, we present our research on past efforts to solve this grand challenge. We will explore the ways the efforts worked and how we could apply those ideas. It will also show the ways the efforts did not work and how we could avoid those issues.
01
The Drinkable Book
The Drinkable Book, created by Teri Dankovich in 2013, was created for use in underdeveloped countries where contaminated water poses major health risks [8]. The aim of the drinkable book is to filter unclean water into drinkable water in a cheap, efficient, and sustainable way.
The Drinkable Book contains silver-impregnated pages that can be used to filter contaminated water. Just one page from this book can filter up to 100 liters of water and removes up to 99.9% of bacteria from the water[9].
To use the book, you rip one of the pages in half, slide it into the filter box, and filter the contaminated water through [10]. The filters can last a couple of weeks and the entire book can last about a year [10].
Not only is the Drinkable Book an efficient way to filter water, but it is relatively cheap to make. It only costs a few dollars to make, each page only costing about 10 cents to manufacture [10].
02
P&G Water Purifying Powder
Scientists at Procter & Gamble were experimenting with a way to remove dirt from used laundry water when they created the P&G Purifier of Water packets [11]. These packets contain a powder that removes 99.9% or more of water-borne bacteria, viruses, and protozoa from up to 10 liters of water by coagulating particulates and disinfecting the water [11]. These packets are cheap to make and are sold with zero economic profit at 3.5 cents per packet to NGOs [12]. In addition to their cheap cost, these packets are also an effective solution because they are easy to transport and have a long shelf-life [12]. However, there are drawbacks, mainly the need for demonstration before use, packaging waste, and the relatively high cost per liter of water treated since the packets are relatively small [12].
Problems with Past Attempts
A common approach to increasing clean water accessibility is through the installation of hand pumps. Though installation of hand water pumps around the world has lead to 1.6 billion people getting clean water for the first time, there is still a major flaw to these pumps: they are unreliable and require maintenance every three to five years [13]. However, the organizations that helped establish the pumps are no longer responsible for them after their project finishes. This lack of monitoring is the main reason that water projects fail long term.
In other instances, factors not within the organization’s control cause projects to fail. The first reason is lack of infrastructure in the areas with no clean water. If a location cannot sustain their own functioning community, it is unlikely that they will be able to keep a pump or any water project up and running. The second reason is poverty and inequality. Poverty works hand in hand with lack of infrastructure. Working to maintain a new pump will likely be low priority if they are a part of a poor community. Inequality in these communities is a huge problem for past attempts because the the water crisis disproportionately affects women. Empowering women is crucial to solving the water crisis, and this is one aspect that most attempts overlook. The next reason is climate change. So many organizations help the water crisis in a community for the present, but overlook the future. Climate change is drastically affecting our planet and needs to be considered when trying to solve a huge problem like the water crisis. The final reason why water projects fail is because of population increase. Once again, these projects plan for the present and forget to consider the future generations. The global population is increasing every day, so if a water project only plans to supply enough water for the current population, that water supply will eventually be overused and run out.
How can we learn from past attempts?
With there being so many different and unique attempts to solve the water crisis, there are bound to be some that just don’t work out. Instead of ignoring those failed attempts, we can learn and grow from them. The first thing that we can learn is that we need a way to monitor what we put into place. A water project without monitoring is like giving a pocket knife to a boy scout without teaching him how to use it. It is most likely going to fail miserably. Additionally, past attempts largely ignore the underlying causes of the water crisis: climate, poverty, and gender inequality. Although these causes are extremely complex systems that cannot be solved through just one project, attempts at solving the water crisis should take these things into consideration when designing their solutions. For example, solutions that are effective for poverty-stricken communities should be cheap and easy-to-implement with the given education and infrastructure level in the community.