More than two billion people around the world lack the safe drinking water

This came in a new report published by the World Health Organization and UNICEF on the occasion International Water Week 2025. He concluded that despite some progress, there are still big gaps. People who live in low -income countries, fragile contexts, rural societies, children, ethnic minority groups and indigenous peoples face the largest disparities.

Dr. Rudger Krish, Deputy Director of Environment and Climate Change and Health Change at the World Health Organization, said: “Water, sanitation and hygiene are not privileges, but rather basic rights for humans. We must accelerate work, especially for the most marginalized societies, if we want to fulfill our promise to investigate Sustainable development goals“.

Teaching children and their health in danger

In turn, Cecilia Sharb, director of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Department at UNICEF, said: “When children lack the safe water, sanitation and hygiene, their health, education and future are at risk.”

She added that these disparities are especially blatant for girls, who often bear the burden of water collection and face additional obstacles during the menstrual cycle.

He warned that at the current pace, “the promise of providing safe water and sanitation for every child is far from hand, which reminds us of the need to work faster and more boldly to reach those who are in desperate need.”

Some facts from the report:

• Despite the gains achieved since 2015, one in 4 people – or 2.1 billion people in the world remain – lack safely safe drinking water, including 106 million people who drink directly from non -treatment surface sources.
• 3.4 billion people still lack safely managed sewage services, including 354 million people practicing defecation in the open.
• 1.7 billion people still lack basic hygiene services at home, including 611 million people who have no facilities.
• People in the least developed countries are more vulnerable to the lack of basic drinking and sanitation water services compared to people in other countries, and three times more likely to not obtain basic hygiene.
• Teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years are less involved than adult women in activities during the menstrual cycle, such as school, work and social entertainment.
• In most countries where data is available, women and girls are mainly responsible for collecting water, as many in sub -Saharan Africa and Central and South Asia spend more than 30 minutes a day in water collection.