A little thinking outside the box can go a long way in helping bring clean H2O to those who need it most.
About 89 percent of the globe had access to improved sources of drinking water in 2012 -- up significantly from 76 percent in 1990, according to a report released last year by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Although there's still significant progress to be had (roughly 748 million people still lack access, the United Nations notes), inventive thinking is in part to credit for helping more communities connect to the crucial resource.
In honor of World Water Day on Sunday, here are a few recent innovative solutions that have brought safe drinking water to more people around the globe.
This Billboard Makes Drinking Water Out Of Thin Air -- (Almost) Like Magic
Watch the full video on how this technology works, by clicking here.
A billboard in Lima, Peru, took a new approach to an old problem.
Ad agency Mayo DraftFCB partnered with the University of Engineering and Technology of Peru in 2013 to create a billboard that captured air humidity and turned it into potable drinking water. The innovation helped area residents make ends meet in a country that gets less than two inches of rain a year, according to a video produced by the school.
The state of water insecurity led to many Peruvians having to rely on unsafe drinking water from polluted wells. But, according to one local resident, the billboard could serve as a viable problem-solver.
"They could put this in different places if possible in each village, in each town," Francisco Quilca told the university.
