Tantoh Nforba promotes watershed preservation by education and
example. Photos Courtesy of Save your Future Association Most
Americans can fill up a glass with tap water and safely drink
it. But there are no faucets where Tantoh Nforba lives and
works. He is from the Northwest Province of Cameroon, a rural
region of Africa where the World Health Organization estimates
that only 44 percent of the population has access to potable
water. The rest of the province’s 1.2 million inhabitants either
drink from streams and lakes polluted with human and animal
feces, contending with potential disease, or walk up to seven
miles to collect clean drinking water from sporadically placed
water pumps. The pumps are unreliable: Hard to maintain, they
frequently fall into disrepair. And while water flows during the
rainy season, many go dry later. Almost one-fifth of the world’s
population lacks consistent access to clean water. The situation
is made worse, says the United Nations Environment Program, by
the water-intensive fa