But these groups need help from people like you to carry out their important missions, which is why VICE Impact has rounded up some of the most effective organizations that are fighting for real change in this arena, and saving lives across the globe.
To achieve this goal, WaterAid works on two main fronts: both directly supplying poor communities with the water services they need, and then on a larger legislative level, working to influence local governments and implement policy that will lead to sustainable water and sanitation solutions.
WaterAid has supplied 23 million people across 36 countries with access to clean water and sanitation.
3: VICE News Tonight (HBO) 02:16 VICE News Tonight This exiled Chinese billionaire uses YouTube to wage a war on corruption 07:48 The Untitled Action Bronson Show Rosie Perez, Mike Solomonov 22:38 Desus & Mero Comedian Gary Owen 19:29 Desus & Mero Trump Calls Out Ball Family 03:34 VICE Canada Reports Canada's Waterless Communities 15:24 And finally, WaterAid works with local governments to ensure that sustainable, systemic change occurs, and that these individuals will have clean and safe drinking water for years to come.
Water.org Many organizations that work to bring clean water to communities in need, approach the issue by constructing wells and supplying fresh water.
UNICEF’s overall mission is to protect the rights of children around the world, which is why UNICEF spent over $96.3 million dollars in 2015 on bringing water, sanitation and hygiene supplies to communities in need.
According to UNICEF’s extensive research, teaching sanitation to kids in school is not only an effective way to increase sanitation within schools, it also enhances sanitation at home when children bring these sanitation methods to their families.
The Rotary Foundation is one of the earth’s most powerful and impactful charitable organizations, tackling issues like fighting disease, growing local economies in developing nations, supporting education, promoting peace and providing clean drinking water to people across the globe.
Among its many initiatives, Rotary has teamed up with UNICEF for the WASH in Schools Target Challenge, to develop educational projects that teach children about basic hygiene, sanitation, and provide them with clean, safe drinking water.
Part of Charity: Water’s success is due to its unique strategy, where it works with local partner organizations to fund programs that bring clean water to communities.

While we’re not literally able to pull much out of thin air, fresh drinking water is certainly a possibility.
Zero Mass Water has created Source, a “hydropanel” that’s able to extract moisture from the air.
The goal here is an awesome one: to create an alternative source of drinking water that could be used to help rural areas.
Based on the climate, a two-panel system is able to create between 4 to 10 liters, or up to a 20-pack of 16.9-ounce bottles, per day.
This was an easy focus as the startup is located in Arizona.
Even though creating a big package of bottled water sounds like a significant amount, this device is geared toward consumption and not general use.
“We want to guarantee access to safe drinking water for every person in the world, and fundamentally change the human relationship to water.” With $24 million received by investors, Zero Mass Water will be able to sell Source in the United States beginning this week.
The device has already been installed in numerous places around the country, such as a Duke Energy facility in North Carolina and select homes and schools in Arizona where the startup was born.
How much does it cost to get Source?
Each panel is $2,000 with installation running an extra $500.

Halifax Water needs to improve the way it tracks risks to drinking water and do a better job of planning for long-term infrastructure upgrades, a new report from Halifax’s auditor general has found.
The report said in order to manage any potential threats to drinking water, Halifax Water must keep an up-to-date inventory of the risks to its services.
But the audit found gaps in the information that the utility uses to plan for infrastructure replacement.
9 recommendations accepted Halifax Water accepted all the report’s recommendations.
During its review, the audit found three former staff members could still access and edit the program used to track water sample results.
Track whether any actions made in compliance with the Environment Department are followed.
Report on surplus buildings On Wednesday, the auditor general also released a report that looks at how the municipality handles surplus buildings and land.
It said the municipality could save money by paying better attention to unused properties.
Municipal staff often don’t review holdings for years and only consider the buildings and land after people, businesses or councillors request information, the audit said.
It recommended staff look at whether an annual review is feasible and if it can improve how it tracks the inventory.

There, in a shaded courtyard, we each sample a cup of water that flows from a drinking fountain.
There sit two Friesen’s devices, called Source Hydropanels.
Friesen believes installations like this one could soon be providing clean, quality drinking water to homes, schools and businesses across the United States and beyond – and why not, to rural villages, desert towns or urban slums in the developing world.
“Water stress is a human condition,” says Friesen, who is founder and CEO of Zero Mass Water, the Arizona-based startup that makes Source.
But Friesen, a materials scientist and professor of engineering at Arizona State University, has already installed the Source in eight countries, including Ecuador, Jordan, Mexico and the Philippines.
“With us, you get to hold the result of that solar energy in a cup,” he says.
In 2007, he founded Fluidic Energy, which develops battery technology.
“He’s going to get water out of the air.
He’s done it Arizona.
“There is an awful lot of far from pure water being drunk in the United States,” says Battle, whose Berkeley house Freisen took me for the demonstration of Source.

BERKELEY, Calif., Nov, 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — More than six million Americans are drinking water polluted with highly fluorinated chemicals.
These substances, used as stain and water repellents and in fighting aviation fires, are associated with health problems including kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, decreased sperm quality, high cholesterol, and decreased response to vaccines.
Scientists and Government Agree – Action is Needed.
Coordinated research is needed to protect the health of our country, say scientists writing in a letter published today as a peer reviewed commentary in Environmental Health.
They are frightened about their health, the health of their children, and are asking for answers," said Arlene Blum, PhD, of the Green Science Policy Institute and co-author of the letter.
The Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration are also recipients because the firefighting foams used at military bases and airports are linked to the pollution.
"My dread is that my children’s future health will be harmed by their exposures to these toxic chemicals," said Andrea Amico of Portsmouth NH.
Ms. Amico’s children drank polluted water in a daycare and have elevated levels of the chemicals in their blood years later.
The scientists’ proposal would provide impacted communities with education, blood testing, health studies, and medical monitoring.
According to co-author Tom Bruton of the Green Science Policy Institute, "our letter asks decision makers to take action to clean up the contamination, study the impacted communities, and prevent future incidents."

The village is reported be one of the oldest settlements and has a population of over four hundred inhabitants.
Speaking to this reporter at the weekend, the Alkalo (village head), Bokarr Leigh, explained that his community has been suffering for the lack of access to clean drinking water for some years now.
He said people suffer a lot, especially the women who would travel about five km in search of water in the nearby villages.
He lamented that without clean water it would be difficult for one to purify himself or even to perform ablution to pray.
Mr Leigh also explained that sometimes women have to scramble for water, adding that they would wake up very early in the morning to search for clean water in a nearby village.
He also cited among other hosts of concerns, the lack of horticultural garden in his village, saying that the community is seriously in need as this year’s rainy season was very poor.
He also appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture through their agricultural projects such as GCAV and FASDEP to come to their aid in assisting them with horticultural garden as the community, especially the women are ready and commitment to embark on horticultural activities.
For her part, Penda Jawo, who spoke on behalf of the women expressed grave concern about the difficulties especially, what the women are facing in search of access to clean drinking water.
She said this is a major concern to them and called on the Government, philanthropists and well wishers to come to their assistance and help them with a borehole and garden for the women.
In a related development, the officials of Penny Appeal visited the said village to see for themselves so after the visit they promised to come up with solutions as the community is urgently in need of help.

ATLANTA (CNN) — Clear water is not always a sign of clean water — or so suggest two new reports on water-associated disease outbreaks published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2013-14, a total of 42 drinking-water-associated outbreaks caused by infectious pathogens, chemicals or toxins were reported to the CDC from 19 states.
“The number of drinking water outbreaks has increased from 32 in 2011-2012,” said Kathy Benedict, lead author of the report and an epidemiologist in CDC’s Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch.
“This may be due to a true increase in disease, better reporting or changes in capacity in states to do surveillance.” Legionella caused more than half — 57 percent — of the outbreaks, 88 percent of the hospitalizations and all 13 deaths, according to the CDC.
Though water systems frequently “chlorinate before they distribute,” Subra explained, in some cases, the level of chlorination “isn’t sufficient to make it all the way to the end of this distribution system.” “So if these bacteria are in there and don’t get properly treated before they leave the plant … then the bacteria grows again and causes the people in the farthest regions of the distribution system to become contaminated and to become ill,” Subra said.
Waterborne disease During the same 2013-14 time frame, 15 outbreaks associated with an environmental exposure to water contaminated with harmful pathogens, chemicals or toxins were reported to the CDC by 10 states.
An additional 12 outbreaks caused by undetermined exposure to contaminated water were reported by eight states during the 2013-2014 period.
Benedict said outbreaks associated with environmental exposure to water increased from eight outbreaks in 2011-2012, while no change occurred in undetermined exposure outbreaks.
For the combined environmental and undetermined disease outbreaks, Legionella was responsible for 63 percent of the illnesses, 94 percent of hospitalizations and all deaths.
“So you have chemical contamination and bacterial contamination that you weren’t looking out for historically that are also now contaminating the water and causing severe health impacts to the community.” Though environmental scientists figured these issues were happening, there was no testing to verify them and no requirements at the federal or state level that tests be done by water systems.

Cate Gillon/Getty Images (CNN) – Clear water is not always a sign of clean water — or so suggests two new reports on water-associated disease outbreaks published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The reports do not include lead contamination.
She was not involved in the CDC reports.
The report said that 75% of the 1,006 cases of illness were linked to community water systems, which are government-regulated.
Waterborne disease During the same 2013-14 time frame, 15 outbreaks associated with an environmental exposure to water contaminated with harmful pathogens, chemicals or toxins were reported to the CDC by 10 states.
An additional 12 outbreaks caused by undetermined exposure to contaminated water were reported by eight states during the 2013-2014 period.
For the combined environmental and undetermined disease outbreaks, Legionella was responsible for 63% of the illnesses, 94% of hospitalizations and all deaths.
"So you have chemical contamination and bacterial contamination that you weren’t looking out for historically that are also now contaminating the water and causing severe health impacts to the community."
Though environmental scientists figured these issues were happening, there was no testing to verify them and no requirements at the federal or state level that tests be done by water systems.
"It’s really up to the citizens to be able to identify what’s going on with their drinking water source."

The city of Toledo and nearby communities have earned the dubious distinction of being the first to report outbreaks of human illness due to algae toxins in municipal drinking water, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Both areas take their drinking water from Lake Erie.
Not to mention they can cause dead zones in bodies of water, killing marine life.
In September 2013, microcystin toxin was detected in the water treatment facility for Carroll Township, Ohio, at 3.5 times the safety threshold for drinking water.
This time around, 110 people got sick, and almost half a million people had to quit drinking tap water until they got the all clear.
It’s too early to know whether drinking water problems due to algae are becoming more common, says Jonathan Yoder, a CDC epidemiologist and one of the report’s authors.
"The bottom line is that we can’t say whether they are increasing or not, we know that the conditions that lead to algal blooms — nutrient pollution and warm water — are present in these freshwater lakes," Yoder says.
"I think there’s a continual risk in some of these areas for algal blooms and for some of them to be the type that have toxins that cause human illness."
Kathy Benedict, lead author of the paper and an epidemiologist with the CDC’s Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch, points out that the cases in Ohio in 2013 and 2014 were not necessarily the first — they were just the first to be reported.
The CDC report, which was published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found than in 2013-2014, 42 outbreaks were reported in 19 states, resulting in 1,006 illnesses and 13 deaths.

The reports do not include lead contamination.
"The number of drinking water outbreaks has increased from 32 in 2011-2012," said Kathy Benedict, lead author of the report and an epidemiologist in CDC’s Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch.
Legionella caused more than half — 57% — of the outbreaks, 88% of the hospitalizations and all 13 deaths, according to the CDC.
The report said that 75% of the 1,006 cases of illness were linked to community water systems, which are government-regulated.
Waterborne disease During the same 2013-14 time frame, 15 outbreaks associated with an environmental exposure to water contaminated with harmful pathogens, chemicals or toxins were reported to the CDC by 10 states.
An additional 12 outbreaks caused by undetermined exposure to contaminated water were reported by eight states during the 2013-2014 period.
For the combined environmental and undetermined disease outbreaks, Legionella was responsible for 63% of the illnesses, 94% of hospitalizations and all deaths.
"So you have chemical contamination and bacterial contamination that you weren’t looking out for historically that are also now contaminating the water and causing severe health impacts to the community."
Though environmental scientists figured these issues were happening, there was no testing to verify them and no requirements at the federal or state level that tests be done by water systems.
"It’s really up to the citizens to be able to identify what’s going on with their drinking water source."