Millions lack safe water

345

million without water access in:
(click a region)

• Africa

More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all deaths, 99 percent, occur in the developing world.³

Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.¹

Of the 60 million people added to the world's towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements (i.e. slums) with no sanitation facilities.⁷

780 million people lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people.²

"[The water and sanitation] crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns." ⁹

An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the average person in a developing country slum uses for an entire day.⁹

Over 2.5X more people lack water than live in the United States.²

More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.²

Resource Links

1. Estimated with data from Diarhhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done. UNICEF, WHO 2009
2. Estimated with data from WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation. (2012). Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water, 2012 Update.
3. World Health Organization (WHO). (2008). Safer Water, Better Health: Costs, benefits, and sustainability of interventions to protect and promote health; Updated Table 1: WSH deaths by region, 2004.
4. International Telecommunication Union (ITU). (2011). The World in 2011 ICT Facts and Figures
5. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). (2011). State of World Population 2011, People and possibilities in a world of 7 billion
6. World Health Organization (WHO). (2004). Evaluation of the Costs and Benefits of Water and Sanitation Improvements at the Global Level
7. UN Water. (2008). Tackling a global crisis: International Year of Sanitation 2008
8. UN Water. (2009). The United Nations World Water Development Report 3, Water in a Changing World
9. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (2006). Human Development Report 2006, Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis
10. Water and Sanitation Program (WSP). (2000). Linking Sustainability with Demand, Gender and Poverty: A study in community-managed water supply projects in 15 countries
11. Water and Sanitation Program (WSP). (2010). Financing On-Site Sanitation for the Poor, A Six County Comparative Review and Analysis
12. World Health Organization (WHO). (2002). The World Health Report 2002, Reducing Risks, Promoting Health Life
13. World Health Organization (WHO). (2004). Evaluation of the Costs and Benefits of Water and Sanitation Improvements at the Global Level
14. Map data sourced from "Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water, 2010 Update." WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.