With 1.1 billion and 2. 5 billion people lacking access to clean water and sanitation respectively,  the lack of access these basic resources remains to be a significant barrier to the development of societies around the world. The deaths caused by the lack of sanitation, reported at 3.5 million each year, leads to a decrease in the population, that is, a decrease in the number of employed people who contribute to the productivity of a country. Furthermore, since most people in remote villages without access to clean water need to walk long distances each day to water sources such as wells and rivers, a significant amount of time is consumed for water collection. The sources of clean water for remote regions can either be through community standposts or faucets, water trucks, and natural sources such as rivers and creeks – all of which require time for water extraction. For community stand posts and water trucks, people will often have to walk to the community and wait in que for the former and wait for water truck arrival and que for the latter. This then reduces people's time to pursue productive tasks such as working or schooling leading to  a decline in the citizens? contribution to society and the overall productivity in the community. Moreover, the increasing demand for water sources in remote regions due to the increasing population only worsens the situation by making community water sources crowded, making ques longer, and making individuals have a harder time collect water. The inconvenience of collecting water caused by its scarcity also allows private vendors or "water mafias" which sell water from a higher price, sometimes ten times more expensive than water through public systems,  to flourish. This is the reason why the majority of people in poorer regions often pay more for water more than those living in higher income regions leading the poorer people to spend more money on basic needs and hence not have sufficient money to save or use in profitable schemes such as investments or business.

WaterCredit is a project initiated by Gary White in 2003. The program utilizes a microfinance program in order to finance the installment of water distribution systems such as water connections, toilets and sewages that would clearly improve access to clean water and sanitation. The program has a low interest rate of around 10-24 percent each year compared to 100-200 interest rate that loan sharks have. This is made possible through the "social collateral" of the institution such that when credit is issued to groups and the failure of one member would mean that the rest of the group will need to pay for the missing one.

"Sanitation Markets at the Bottom of the Pyramid" WATER AND SANITATION PROGRAM: June 2011, www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP-Sanitation-Markets-Bottom-Pyramid-Peru.pdf.

Patel, Hiteranda, et al. Getting Safe Water and Sanitation to the Bottom of the Pyramid through Bold and Game-Changing Innovations. Hult International Business School Publishing, www.hultprize.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/HGCC-Waterorg-casestudy-IXL.pdf.