This case allows instructors to lay out the challenges of providing universal access to safe drinking water in some developing and emerging countries—one of the current UN development goals. The challenge across developing countries is to find long-lasting and sustainable solutions, and to realize that present answers to the challenge may be a far cry from these criteria. The discussion aims to address the complex and multifaceted nature of water supply in developing countries, and to emphasize that many of the assumptions made in advanced economies may not apply. The aim is to search for the best (long-lasting and sustainable) solutions, admitting there is no silver bullet, even though some alternatives are clearly better than others.
