Water statistics

This article is 9 years old. Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.

A global crisis

884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world’s population. (WHO/UNICEF)
2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation. This is almost two-fifths of the world’s population. (WHO/UNICEF)
1.4 million children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation – 4,000 child deaths a day or one child every 20 seconds. This equates to 160 infant school classrooms lost every single day to an entirely preventable public health crisis. (WHO/WaterAid)

Since 1981, we have reached 15.89 million people with safe water.
Since 2004, we have reached 11.02 million people with sanitation.
In 2010/11 we reached 1.45 million people with safe water and 1.62 million people with sanitation.
Just £15 can enable one person to access a lasting supply of safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation. (WaterAid)