One year later, Jones joined a number of state and private efforts to rebuild Liberia by setting up FACE Africa, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that's working to provide access to clean drinking water in Liberia's rural communities, where running water and sewage infrastructure is often a rare luxury.

CNN: One woman's mission to fix Liberia's water crisis

Therafter, Reddy had devoted himself to a variety of philanthropic causes, including providing drinking water to rural areas and mid-day meals to school-going children.

FORBES: Indian Pharma Pioneer K.Anji Reddy, Dies

Exactly one year later, we broke ground on a water and sanitation project in a small rural community called Joezohn with no access to safe drinking water or sanitation facilities.

FORBES: Saran Kaba Jones: A Young African Woman And Her Water Legacy

In many unserved rural areas, people still fetch water for drinking and mix it with infant formula to feed their babies.

ECONOMIST: Water

Many of Guatemala's rural indigenous communities lack infrastructure basics such as clean drinking water, sanitation and electricity.

NPR: Guatemala Project Builds Tech from the Ground Up

In late 2011, the drinking water for about a dozen residents in the Woodlands, a rural community about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, began to change.

NPR: Cause Of Off-Color, Fetid Water Eludes Pa. Town

You can see for yourself, in WaterAid's new multi-media piece, the transformative impact that providing clean drinking water can have, by going on a virtual visit to the village of Alakamisy, a remote rural area of Madagascar that benefited from a WaterAid project in 2010.

CNN: World Water Day: An end to global thirst is in sight