LifeStraw - Introduction

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) call for a reduction of the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by half between 1990 and 2015. Yet, an estimated 884 million people in the world, 37% of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa, still use unimproved sources of drinking water.

Lack of access to safe drinking water contributes to the staggering burden of diarrhoeal diseases worldwide, particularly affecting the young, the immunocompromised and the poor. Nearly one in five child deaths about 1.5 million each year is due to diarrhoea. Diarrhoea kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined². Drinking contaminated water also leads to reduced personal productive time, with widespread economic effects.