UNICEF says millions live without adequate drinking water

Access to drinking water has been one of the biggest successes of the Millennium Development Goals, UNICEF says ahead of World Water Day.

But for 748 million people around the world, just getting this essential service remains a challenge.
 
“The story of access to drinking water since 1990 has been one of tremendous progress in the face of incredible odds,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, head of UNICEF's global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programmes on Saturday.
 
“But there is more to do. Water is the very essence of life and yet three-quarters of a billion people – mostly the poor and the marginalized – remain deprived of this most basic human right”.
 
Some 2.3 billion people have gained access to improved sources of drinking water since 1990.
 
As a result, the MDG target of bringing down to half the number without access to safe drinking water was reached five years ahead of the 2015 deadline.
 
There are now only three countries – Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea – where more than half the population do not have improved drinking water.
 
But, despite this progress, significant disparities persist.
 
Of the 748 million people globally still without access, 90 per cent live in rural areas, and are being left behind in the march to progress.
 
For children, lack of access to safe water can be tragic. On average, nearly 1,000 of them die every day from diarrhoeal diseases linked to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation, or poor hygiene, UNICEF says.

For women and girls, collecting water cuts into time they can spend caring for families and studying. In insecure areas, it also puts them at risk of violence and attack.
 
UNICEF estimates that in Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking to collect water.
 
Working with governments and partners UNICEF is pushing for innovative and cost effective methods to make progress.
 
For example, it has used a new approach to collect rainwater and then pump it into shallow aquifers in Bangladesh, achieving water security for approximately one million people whose groundwater had become salinised.
 
UNICEF and its partners have launched an awareness campaign in social media with the hashtag #wateris this year.