In 2010, it is not an exaggeration to say that the lack of access to clean water is the greatest human rights violation in the world. It’s a shocking fact that today, some 884 million people were without access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion lacked access to basic sanitation.  Bearing in mind the commitment to fully achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it expressed alarm that 1.5 million children under five years old died each year as a result of water- and sanitation-related diseases, acknowledging that safe, clean drinking water and sanitation were integral to the realization of all human rights.

There are many actions to end  water poverty around the world. Most recently, experts have named the top 19 Solutions to the Global Freshwater Crisis. With wisdom and wit, Anupam  Mishra’s, a Gandhian and an environmental activist, shared to the world, an ancient ingenuity of water harvesting built centuries ago by the people of India's Golden Desert. These structures are still used today - and are often superior to modern water megaprojects.
Anupam  Mishra was speaker at TEDIndia in Mysore last year.

photo courtesy: Morgane Le Galoudec /madagascar