Our Cause
"Water is a limited natural resource and a public good fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights."
United Nations Economic and Social Council, November 2002.
At ADFT, we believe that clean, safe drinking water is not a commodity but a fundamental human right. We also believe that providing access to clean water is an essential tool in the war against poverty. Lack of access to clean water has physical, social, and economic ramifications. At any given time, almost half of all people living in developing countries suffer from a health problem caused by lack of safe water and sanitation that undermines their ability to study or work.
Currently, half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by people who suffer from a water-related disease. In fact, nearly five million people die every year from preventable, water-related diseases. Diarrhea, primarily a disease of dirty water, is the second most common killer of children under the age of five in poor countries. The disease results in nearly 5,000 preventable deaths in children each day, which translates into a staggering 1.8 million dead children per year. Annually, children miss more than 443 million school days due to water-related illnesses.
Globally, women spend over 200 million hours traveling to collect water each day. According to a new report released by the Pacific Institute, an independent, nonpartisan think-tank that studies issues at the intersection of development, environment, and security, over 76 million people will perish from water-related disease by 2020 unless urgent action is taken. The report further finds that water-related diseases could claim more lives than the global AIDS pandemic by 2020 unless major changes are made.
Although approximately 884 million people suffer from lack of access to clean water, a solution to this massive problem is not impossible. Major development organizations agree that clean water projects are one of the most effective ways of saving lives and one of the most cost-effective investments in disease prevention. Potable water projects typically reduce diarrhea-related diseases by 30 to 50 percent, with even higher reductions during water-borne epidemics, such as cholera and typhoid. Furthermore, the World Health Organization estimates that every $1 invested in clean water and sanitation yields between $3 to $34 in reduced medical costs and increased productivity.
ADFT generates critical funding and channels it to the urgent clean water crisis, but accompanies it with the promise that money allocated to the clean water crisis will have enormous returns in the health and development of the communities provided with clean water.
"That 1.2 billion people lack access to clean water is surely one of the greatest development failures of the modern era. That as many as 5 million people mainly children die every year from preventable, water-related disease is surely one of the great tragedies of our time."
- Pacific Institute
