79,580,618 is the number of people living in EAC countries without basic access to drinking water or over 49% of the population.
What do you mean by basic access to drinking water?
Water which requires trips of longer than 30 minutes to retrieve, or that is sourced from ponds, streams, or unprotected wells is not included in basic service of drinking water.
Even with basic drinking water service, consumer level boiling or other treatment of water is necessary.
How does access to basic drinking water compare to other regions of the world?
Of this figure, 159 million people drink untreated surface water from lakes or streams.
Is basic water access in the EAC improving or declining?
These diseases affect the vulnerable populations the most.
The main challenges are a lack of infrastructure to install pipes to transport water.
What is being done in the EAC to meet the need for basic water access?