WATER CRISIS

Water and Sanitation - United Nations

Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need for health and well-being. Billions of people will lack access to these basic services in 2030 unless progress quadruples. Demand for water is rising owing to rapid population growth, urbanization and increasing water needs from agriculture, industry, and energy sectors.

Drinking Water

In 2021, over 2 billion people live in water-stressed countries, which is expected to be exacerbated in some regions as result of climate change and population growth (1). In 2022, globally, at least 1.7 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces. Microbial contamination of drinking-water as a result of contamination with faeces poses the greatest risk to drinking-water safety. Safe and sufficient water facilitates the practice of hygiene, which is a key measure to prevent not only diarrhoeal diseases, but acute respiratory infections and numerous neglected tropical diseases. Microbiologically contaminated drinking water can transmit diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio and is estimated to cause approximately 505 000 diarrhoeal deaths each year.

Water | IUCN

Unsustainable use and management of water is degrading ecosystems and driving species to extinction. Many countries face a future without enough water to meet their needs, limiting economic growth and contributing to migration and regional instability. Current water laws and management strategies have proven insufficient to address these challenges, which are exacerbated by climate change.

Water Overview

Water touches every aspect of development and it links with nearly every Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). It drives economic growth, supports healthy ecosystems, and is essential and fundamental for life itself. Approximately 2 billion people around the world do not have safely managed drinking water services, 3.6 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation services, and 2.3 billion lack basic handwashing facilities. Gaps in access to water supply and sanitation, growing populations, more water-intensive patterns of growth, increasing rainfall variability, and pollution are combining in many places to make water one of the greatest risks to economic progress, poverty eradication and sustainable development.

Water and Habitat | ICRC

Water and habitat: Safeguarding public health. When conflict impedes access to clean water, safe shelter or a sustainable living environment, the consequences are severe and far-reaching.

UNDRR

Disasters threaten to steal away precious development gains and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Water | United Nations

Better access to water is helping create new possibilities for people in some of the world’s most remote communities. Goal 6 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Education

31% of schools lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation. Globally 443 Million days children are absent in school due to preventable water-related diseases each year.

Time lost from fetching water or being sick from waterborne diseases keeps many children out of school. Without kids being able to advance their education, cycles of poverty often continue generation after generation.

Once schools and families have water and sanitation facilities for girls, then children can stay in school and families can prosper.

Water and Time

$260 billion is estimated economic loss due to poor water. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, women spend 40 billion hours a year walking for water.

Access to clean water gives communities more time to grow food, earn an income and go to school – all of that fights poverty! 

Water is a women's issue

Women are responsible for 72% of the water collected in Sub-Saharan Africa. 6 hours each and every day girls spend collecting water.

23% of girls drop out the school when they start menstruating due to lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation in schools.

When a community gets water, women and girls get their lives back. They start businesses, improve  their homes and take charge of their own futures.