Three hundred million people in sub-Saharan Africa currently do not have access to clean water, said experts at a conference in London last week. Furthermore, Africa will not meet the UN millennium development goal of reducing by half the number of people without access to clean water until 2050.

The conference, organised by the International Association of Hydrogeologists, brought together more than 100 experts on water from Europe and Africa, donors such as the World Bank, and non-government organisations, including Unicef and WaterAid, to discuss the link between access to clean water and poverty in Africa.

Participants agreed that reliable access to clean water …