The Girl Who Is Combating Uganda's Water Problem

Access to purified water is a basic human right, yet 783 million people lack of it, with 85% of the world's population living in the driest half of the planet and, therefore, six to eight million people dying annually from the consequences of water-related diseases. 

Of the people with poor access to primal sanitation, 8.4 million live in Uganda, a country with a life expectancy of 58 years, and where diarrhoeal diseases are the fifth leading cause of death. Kathy Ku, a 19-year-old girl from Chicago who traveled to this African country to work in an all girl school after her freshman year at Harvard, faced this reality as she began looking for a method to improve the quality of life of the people she met and lived with. Given the availability of clay and local traditions, she designed and manufactured ceramic water filters, which eliminate 99% of the bacteria living in the water. Currently, her factory has the capacity to make 10,000 filters a month for families in need, meaning 50 to 60,000 people can benefit from her idea.

In a country where 30% of people lack clean drinking water, and the leading cause of death for kids under age five is preventable water-borne diseases, people like Kathy and her team are more and more urgently needed, and stories so filled with hope and passion as this one are worth reading, and worth spreading.