Nearly 1 billion people globally lack proper access to secure water. Poor water accessibility is most common in sub-Saharan Africa and countries like Nepal, India, and Haiti. Better access to clean, safe water is essential to the development of impoverished communities across the globe.

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                Collecting usable water for cooking, cleaning, and drinking is the priority in all cultures. There are communities on every continent that lack running water, or even just a clean water source. It can take hours each day to collect mere gallons of water. This is time spent walking miles to a water source such as a well, and lugging back this water. Hours of time and energy are wasted on an act that industrialized societies have left behind for many decades. This is a burden often befalling women and children. According to UNICEF, nearly 200 million hours each day is spent globally by women and children fetching water. This is an enormous use of time that could be much better spent in school or work. In a global economy where education is crucial to success, a lack of schooling is a surefire way of perpetuating the cycle of poverty. Thus, the time spent fetching water is a direct deterrent to economic growth and development of disadvantaged countries as it takes away from time spent in education. Instead of contributing to the workforce and improvement of their communities, women are left behind to secure a basic life necessity. Moreover, much of this water is not sanitary. Many rural communities lack a proper filtration process to ensure that it is safe to drink and use in cooking. According to the world health organization, 5 million people die each year from unsanitary water usage. This is a profound amount of people dying from preventable diseases. When such a large number of people in a community are restricted by health issues and loss of time due to a lack of water access, it is impossible for the community to have adequate development.

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            Increasing access to safe water is no easy task. In many of the communities lacking water access there is little government support, which makes establishing running water systems extremely difficult. Nevertheless, providing the support and access to materials to create proper well and filtration processes for each community is a sustainable and improved arrangement. Many NGOS across the globe such as Water for Life, UNICEF, and The Water Project work to distribute wells with filters to rural communities. By increasing the number of wells, proximity to the wells for each village is increased as well, and in turn the energy and time spent fetching water is significantly reduced. By using adequate filters on each well, the rate of water-borne fatalities and illnesses diminishes. Community development can be aided one step further by providing community members the knowledge to build their own wells, and allow them to obtain materials to construct the wells. Providing education on the construction is a more sustainable solution than the NGO building and maintaining the well themselves. This method also allows for a business venture in well and filter system construction. 

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                 It is a daunting task to establish better water systems around the world, but if we can focus on helping one community at a time, the mission becomes much more feasible. WIA is currently working to have two wells constructed in rural Haiti. One well will be constructed in a the village of a BuildOn translator and business owner who WIA has partnered with. The other will be constructed in the village of a BuildOn school. They will be constructed by a non-profit organization in Haiti called Water For Life funded by WIA, and maintained by the villages. This method of maintenance encourages sustainability.