Africa is full of natural beauty and resources, but Africa also has the highest number of people lacking access to safe, drinkable water. Africa is rich in natural water resources, but there are political, territorial problems that prevent a better distribution of these water resources; and there is a lack of the necessary funding required to get the water to the places where it is most needed. In the desert areas water is very scarce, and in Ethiopia and surrounding countries most people and farm animals share the same water sources.

There are parts of Africa where there is more than enough rainfall, but the amount of rainfall in many other parts is very inadequate; there are many severe drought conditions that last for more than 5 years. In the Horn of Africa and the Namibian Desert, almost no water falls. Meanwhile, the western part of the continent near the equator receives as much as 4,000 millimeters annually. In addition, Africa has been affected by global warming. Rising temperatures brings dryer weather and that usually results in more severe droughts especially in Northern and Southern Africa. These droughts reduce the amount of available drinking water as well as the water needed for hygiene, the planting of crops, and other domestic uses.

When there is only one small stream that runs through several villages and the stream and rainwater serves for both drinking water and domestic uses, there is a problem obtaining good drinking water. If the villagers are lucky, streams are close by, but in many areas the villagers must carry water in pots on their heads; and there are several miles between the villages and the streams. Even if a stream is close by, the water may be contaminated with diseases such as bilharzia, sleeping sickness, river blindness, guinea worm, and malaria. Besides these, diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery and pneumonia continue to kill children in record numbers. One or two boreholes would take care of the water needs for most African villages, but the villages can't usually afford the pumps, or the necessary equipment to have the boreholes drilled. Sometimes there is no ground water and the boreholes are useless; and sometimes the purity of the drinking water from the boreholes is questionable.