Billions of people still don’t drink or use water that is safe. One of the 17 Promises the world made was to ensure that everyone can get clean, safe water by 2030.
Is there enough water for everyone?
Less than half of the world’s countries are unlikely to make this promise happen by 2030. Here are five facts about the world’s water provided by the United Nations.
There are more people in the world using safely managed drinking water. However, 785 million people still don’t have a basic drinking water service.
The global population using safely managed sanitation services rose to 45 percent in 2017. The greatest increases happened in the global south; Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and East and South-East Asia. But, 701 million people still didn’t use proper toilets in 2017.
In 2017, three billion people didn’t have basic handwashing facilities at home. In 2016, one out of every three primary schools didn’t have basic drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
A significant effort is needed to ensure that cooperation is operational in all transboundary basins. According to data from 67 of 153 countries that share transboundary waters, the average percentage of national transboundary basins covered by an operational arrangement was 59 percent in the period 2017–2018, with only 17 countries reporting that all their transboundary basins were covered by such arrangements.
Following several years of steady increases and after reaching $9 billion in 2016, ODA disbursements to the water sector declined by 2 percent from 2016 to 2017. However, ODA commitments to the water sector jumped by 36 percent between 2016 and 2017, indicating a renewed focus by donors on the sector.
Source: UN
