Water facts

Access to clean drinking water, improved sanitation and proper infrastructure are urgent global problems that call for bold solutions. Here are the facts.

Access and sanitation
470 million people live in regions where severe water shortages exist.

• 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water
• 2.6 billion people (40% of the world's population) lack adequate sanitation
• Lack of sanitation is the world's greatest cause of infection.

Health
88% of all diseases are caused by unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

• An estimated 3.75 million people die from waterborne disease each year
• Waterborne diseases are the world's leading cause of infant death
• Waterborne diseases kill a child every 15 seconds.

Water management
To meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals, some 961 million urban dwellers must gain access to improved water supply, and 1 billion to improved sanitation by 2015.

• 15-35% of the world's irrigation withdrawals are estimated to be unsustainable
• 10% of the world's irrigated lands are waterlogged and salty due to poor drainage and irrigation practices.

Europe
Major water challenges that were once thought to be confined to developing countries currently apply to the wider Europe.

• 40 million lack access to safe drinking water
• 85 million lack basic sanitation
• 60% of European cities with more than 100,000 people use groundwater at a faster rate than it can be replenished
• Only 5 out of 55 rivers in Europe are considered pristine.

The most painful fact
Despite the stunning magnitude of the figures above , it need not be this way.

Both the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and UNESCO's World Water Assessment Programme frequently cite poor governance and water management as lying at the core of most of the world's water-related problems.

Learn more about global, regional and local water issues and initiatives with our comprehensive water links.