The global water and sanitation crisis is pervasive, urgent, and debilitating. Globally, 884 million people lack access to a safe water supply.  That means one out of every eight people on the planet struggle on a daily basis to safely meet their water needs.  What’s more: more than 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation; this figure includes 1.2 billion people who have no sanitation facilities at all.  Diarrhea remains the second leading cause of death among children under five globally.  Nearly one in five child deaths — about 1.5 million each year — is due to diarrhea.  It kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

Improved access to safe water and sanitation is set out as a specific objective in Goal 7 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG).  Water and sanitation are directly related to seven out of the eight MDGs.

The investment required to address the WASH crisis is estimated to range from $10 to $30 billion annually. This compares to current WASH expenditures of $5 billion per year, much of which is in the form of aid and subsidies that bypass those at the bottom of the pyramid. It is clear that there will never be enough charity to address a crisis of this magnitude. The situation is compounded by the fact that most organizations do not segment the market – everyone is viewed as equally poor and as requiring similar subsidies. Given the inverse relationship between the level of subsidy and the likelihood of sustainability, this approach has no prospect for driving scalable and sustainable solutions so needed by those lacking safe water and adequate sanitation.