Quarter of world lacks safely managed drinking water: UN

Geneva: The United Nations announced Tuesday that more than two billion people worldwide, approximately a quarter of the global population, lack acces...

Geneva: The United Nations announced Tuesday that more than two billion people worldwide, approximately a quarter of the global population, lack access to safely managed drinking water, warning that progress toward universal coverage of this service is not advancing quickly enough .

The two UN agencies responsible for health and children stated that one in four people globally did not have access to safely managed drinking water last year, with over 100 million people relying on surface water sources such as rivers, ponds, and canals.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that the lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene services increases the risk of billions of people contracting diseases.

In a joint study, they indicated that the world remains far from achieving universal coverage of these services by 2030, warning that this goal is becoming more difficult.

Director of Environment at WHO Rudiger Krech said that water, sanitation, and hygiene are not privileges, they are a basic human right, adding that all must accelerate action, especially for the most marginalized communities.