USAID Launches New Publication for World Water Day 2007

The health consequences of inadequate clean water supply, sanitation and hygiene include an estimated 4 billion cases of diarrhea and 1.8 million deaths each year, mostly among young children in developing countries. Although over 70 percent of the earth’s surface is water, only 1 percent is safe for human consumption. Today, more than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water and must resort to unsafe or unsanitary sources for basic, everyday needs.

March 22, World Water Day, was the official launch of the USAID publication Best Practices in Social Marketing Safe Water Solution for Household Water Treatment [PDF, 1.1MB], which examines lessons and best practices from Population Services International (PSI) field programs in 18 countries over the past eight years. This paper synthesizes lessons learned, best practices, successes and challenges of social marketing point-of-use safe water solutions, and discusses how these lessons may be applied to planning safe water treatment programs around the globe to reduce diarrheal disease in vulnerable populations.

Lessons are taken from project design, production of safe water system components, the regulatory environment, marketing and communications, sales and distribution, and creating partnerships to strengthen political support and increase access and adoption of the product and associated behaviors.

Additional Information

• Read more about USAID's safe drinking water partnerships [PDF, 586KB]
• United Nations World Water Day 2007 Web site
  The UN marked World Water Day on March 22, highlighting the need for better management of the precious and increasingly threatened resource. "The state of the world's waters remains fragile," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "Available supplies are under great duress as a result of high population growth, unsustainable consumption patterns, poor management practices, pollution, inadequate investment in infrastructure, and low efficiency in water-use.