Making Clean Water Accessible
Worldwide, more than 1 billion people (one in five) lack access to safe and sufficient water for their household needs, subsistence and livelihoods. The lowest drinking water coverage rates are in sub-Saharan Africa (58 per cent) and in the Pacific (52 per cent), but the largest numbers of unserved people are in Asia.
Families, especially women and girls, spend long hours collecting water from local water sources.
The Effects of Living Without Access to Clean Water
Only 58% of the world’s people have access to improved basic sanitation
facilities. A total of 2.6 billion live without improved sanitation—with the lowest coverage rates taking place in sub-Saharan Africa (36 percent) and
South Asia (37 percent).
Lack of adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene is also the root cause
of over 1 million deaths a year from diarrheal disease alone—with 90% of these occuring
in children under five. Diseases that thrive in conditions where fresh water is scarce and
sanitation poor, such as trachoma and tuberculosis are also rampant.
Acumen Fund's water portfolio invests capital and management support in financially
sustainable and scalable enterprises that are helping to solve these problems by making safe and sufficient water
accessible to the poor.
Our Focus Areas
Acumen Fund centers its investment activity in water around a few critical areas, seeking to spur innovation in water access and water quality by improving:
Drinking Water: Issues of purification, access, and distribution, both of surface and groundwater sources
Irrigation: Issues of effective and efficient usage, conservation, and alternative sources accessible to the poor
Sanitation: Issues of managing entire water systems to impact local water quality and broadly impact health.
Learn more about some of the businesses in our Water Portfolio that are leading the way to help solve these challenges.