A staggering 884 million people around the world do not have access to safe drinking water. The vast majority of these people – even in the most arid African communities – can find water, but they lack the means to make it safe to drink. And even dirty water, when it's too far away, cannot be used to grow crops.

World Vision's water programs help communities assess their situation and use the resources they already have to provide access to safe water.

Sometimes drilling a well to draw clean water from underground is the solution that a community needs. In the next six years, World Vision plans to drill 825 borehole wells in rural Africa that will bring the gift of health and clean water to nearly 500,000 people.

In other communities, the water table contains minerals or other compounds that make it unsafe to drink. World Vision works with these communities to find affordable, easy-to-manage solutions to purify their water. For example, World Vision has successfully tested the use of bauxite to neutralize high levels of arsenic and flouride in the water table of communities in Ethiopia, Ghana and Niger.

In Boset, Ethiopia, the long dry summers made it difficult for farmers to grow enough food to support their families. World Vision partnered with the community to construct an irrigation system that made use of water from the nearby Awash river. Farmers now have three crops per year instead of just one, and they are able to feed and care for their children and pay to send them to school.

The greatest resource available to any community is its own people. So World Vision water programs train and mobilize community members to manage and maintain their water systems so the programs are sustainable.

Support World Vision's water program. You can be sure the resources you share will be put to work in the most effective way. Donate now.