The Case for Manual Drilling in Africa
Achieving the MDGs for water supply in Sub-Saharan Africa is a daunting task because the magnitude of the problem is ever increasing. There are 284 million people living in rural areas without access to potable water. In order to reach these people, radically different approaches are needed and more emphasis will need to be placed on solutions that are affordable and that will allow households and communities to satisfy their need for potable water. Low-cost manual drilling has already demonstrated its effectiveness in Asia, Africa and Latin America as a means of increasing the availability of potable water.