Lack of Clean Water for West and Central Africa

Source: Clean Water Goals Slipping in Parts of Africa - Voice of America News

According to the United Nations, many African countries are falling behind in the ability to provide clean water to their people. In fact, less than half of the population in Chad, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger and Nigeria have access to clean water.

One of the goals of the United Nations’ 2015 Millennium Development plan was to cut in half the number of people who do not have clean drinking water by 2015. However, it does not appear that this goal will be realized. In fact, the number of people without access to proper sanitation and clean drinking water has increased from 124 million in 1990 to 157 million presently, in the West and Central African regions.

Esther Guluma of UNICEF says that there are many causes for the decline in the availability of drinkable water. Many countries are poverty stricken, are emerging from civil wars, and are dealing with massive numbers of refugees. In addition, the subject of clean water has basically just been forgotten.

Question:

What can be done to ensure that the clean water shortage is no longer ignored?