- To ensure our basic needs, we all need 20 to 50 litres of water free from harmful contaminants each and every day. (2nd UN World Water Development Report, 2006)
- In 2000, world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit committed themselves to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Goal 7, target 10 aims to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) added another target: to halve by 2015, the proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation.
- With 2 billion people gaining access to clean water over the last two decades, the water target was reached in 2010, five years ahead of schedule. (WaterAid and Development Initiatives: Addressing the shortfall, 2012)
87 per cent of the world’s population uses drinking water from improved sources. 54 per cent uses a piped connection in their dwelling, plot or yard, and 33 per cent uses other improved drinking water sources such as public taps, standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collection. (WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP): Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: Special Focus on Sanitation, 2008). However, there are still 884 million people using unimproved sources for drinking water globally. (4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012) - Global progress of the sanitation target is off-track and 2.6 billion people, a third of the world’s population, are still without access to improved sanitation. (WaterAid and Development Initiatives: Addressing the shortfall, 2012)
- Resourcing of the water, sanitation and hygiene sector is relatively low prioritised compared to other sectors. In many countries, policies and programmes underemphasise adequate financing and human resource development to sustain the existing infrastructure and to expand access to sanitation, drinking-water and hygiene services. (UN-Water: GLAAS, 2012)
- Water and sanitation aid is generally not well targeted to achieve the maximum impact on reducing poverty. The 28 countries accounting for 90 per cent of people without basic sanitation receive only 47 per cent of water and sanitation aid. (WaterAid and Development Initiatives: Addressing the shortfall, 2012)
- Rapid urbanisation adds yet another dimension to water and sanitation issues. The numbers of people in cities who lack access to improved water supply and sanitation is estimated to have grown some 20 per cent since the MDGs were established. (4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012)
- Sanitation coverage in developing countries (49 per cent) is only half that of the developed world (98 per cent). (2nd UN World Water Development Report, 2006)
- 18 per cent of the world’s population, or 1.2 billion people (1 out of 3 in rural areas), defecate in the open. (WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP): Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: Special Focus on Sanitation, 2008)
- Up to 50% of malnutrition is related to repeated diarrhoea or intestinal nematode infections as a result of unclean water, inadequate sanitation or poor hygiene. (3rd UN World Water Development Report, 2009)
- 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases (including cholera); 90 per cent are children under 5, mostly in developing countries. (WHO: Water, sanitation and hygiene links to health, 2004)
- The overall increase in the number of cholera cases for the decade 2000–2010 was 130 per cent.(4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012). Almost one-tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources. Such improvements reduce child mortality and improve health and nutritional status in a sustainable way. (3rd UN World Water Development Report, 2009)
- The provision of improved sanitation and safe drinking water could reduce diarrhoeal diseases by nearly 90 per cent. (4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012). Improved water supply reduces diarrhoea morbidity by 21 per cent, and improved sanitation reduces diarrhoea morbidity by 37.5 per cent. (WHO: Water, sanitation and hygiene links to health, 2004)
- Up to 90 per cent of wastewater in developing countries flows untreated into rivers, lakes and highly productive coastal zones, threatening health, food security and access to safe drinking and bathing water. (4th UN World Water Development Report, 2012)
- In many places of the world, a staggering 30 to 40 per cent of water or more goes unaccounted for due to water leakages in pipes and canals and illegal tapping. (2nd UN World Water Development Report, 2006)
- Women are more than twice as likely as men to go and fetch drinking water. (WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP): Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: Special Focus on Sanitation, 2008)
