2 Billion People Struggle to Access Clean Drinking Water

More than two billion people around the globe, nearly a quarter of the world’s population, are without access to safely managed drinking water, the United Nations has warned.

According to a joint report released on Tuesday by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, progress towards universal access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is falling behind schedule, putting billions at risk of disease and poor living conditions.

The study revealed that one in four people relied on unsafe drinking water sources last year, with over 100 million still dependent on rivers, ponds, and canals. Despite efforts, the world remains far from reaching the 2030 target of universal safe water and sanitation.

WHO’s Director of Environment, Rüdiger Krech, stressed that access to water, sanitation and hygiene is a fundamental human right, urging governments to speed up action, particularly for the most marginalized communities.

The report outlines five service levels of drinking water, with safely managed water defined as clean, accessible on-site, available when needed, and free from the most dangerous contaminants. While 961 million people have gained access to such services since 2015, 2.1 billion still lack them, with the greatest challenges concentrated in Africa.

Since 2015, access to safely managed sanitation services has improved for 1.2 billion people, while the number of individuals forced to defecate in the open has dropped by 429 million. Basic hygiene coverage has also risen, with 1.6 billion more people now able to wash their hands with soap and water at home.

Yet UNICEF’s Director of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Cecilia Sharp, warned that millions of children remain especially vulnerable. Lack of safe water and sanitation undermines their health, education and future prospects, with girls often bearing the burden of collecting water and facing added challenges during menstruation.

At the current rate of progress, the UN cautions that the promise of safe drinking water and sanitation for all by 2030 is slipping further out of reach.