In the World: Clean Water for Ghana
Nearly 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. The problem is particularly dire in Ghana, where diarrhea causes 25 percent of all deaths of children below the age of five each year, according to UNICEF. The figure is even higher in northern Ghana, where about half the population get its water from wells, ponds and streams that often contain disease-causing microorganisms. Part of the problem is that large, centralized water filtration and sanitation systems aren’t designed to reach remote areas like northern Ghana, according to Susan Murcott, a senior lecturer in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). Murcott has been distributing affordable ceramic water filters in the region through Pure Home Water (PHW), a nonprofit she co-founded with local partners in 2005. To date, PHW has sold and distributed the filters to more than 100,000 people, and the goal is to reach 1 million...