Not just a drop in the bucket: Expanding access to point-of-use water treatment systems

Since 1990, the number of people without access to safe water sources has r emained constant at approximately 1.1 billion, of whom approximately 2.2 mi llion die of waterborne disease each year. In developing countries, populat ion growth and migrations strain existing water and sanitary infrastructure and complicate planning and construction of new infrastructure. Providing safe water for all is a long-term goal; however, relying only on time- and resource-intensive centralized solutions such as piped, treated w ater will leave hundreds of millions of people without safe water far into the future, Self-sustaining, decentralized approaches to making drinking wa ter safe, including point-of-use chemical and solar disinfection, safe wate r storage, and behavioral change, have been widely field-tested. These opti ons target the most affected, enhance health, contribute to development and productivity, and merit far greater priority for rapid implementation.