Concerns for improved facilities in poor nations
When Adam Malga and her friends walk for miles to fetch water to feed their families, they stop and wonder. 'Is this really safe? Is it clean?' the Malian teenager asks. The groundwater in the west African nation has been contaminated by bullets, polluted by human waste and has become a breeding ground for water-borne illness. Such problems are not endemic to Mali, as teenage participants in the Third World Water Forum in the ancient Japanese capital. 'We talk about problems (at the forum) and hear nice words. But we want actions and we want changes,' said Malga, one of 100 young people from 34 countries who joined the week-long forum to discuss ways to provide clean water and sanitation to 2.4 billion people worldwide.

Women and girls across rural Africa have limited access to education because they are forced to walk, often for miles, to fetch water, said Yvonne Malngey. '(Women and girls) don't have time to study so they drop out of school,' said the 15-year-old Kenyan. 'Governments and NGOs should somehow come up with ways to provide water to villages so women do not have to walk for miles.' Help may come from children from industrialized nations, suggested 11-year-old Ryan Hreljac, who has raised 750,000 dollars to fund the construction of wells and other water projects in Africa. Supporters of Ryan's Well Foundation have in the last five years funded water projects in seven African countries, a project the young Canadian began after learning about the water problem facing the world's poorest continent.