Water

Factsheet

Key Facts

• In 2015, 91% of the world’s population had access to an improved drinking-water source, compared with 76% in 1990.
• 2.6 billion people have gained access to an improved drinking-water source since 1990.
• 4.2 billion people now get water through a piped connection; 2.4 billion access water through other improved sources including public taps, protected wells and boreholes.
• 663 million people rely on unimproved sources, including 159 million dependent on surface water.
• Globally, at least 1.8 billion people use a drinking-water source contaminated with faeces.
• Contaminated water can transmit diseases such diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause 502 000 diarrhoeal deaths each year.
• By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas.
• In low- and middle-income countries, 38% of health care facilities lack improved water source, 19% do not have improved sanitation and 35% lack water and soap for handwashing.

Water is essential for life and good health. Fresh water is not only needed for drinking but also cooking, food production and a variety of other uses such as sanitation, hygiene and cleanliness practises. Lack of sanitation can force people to defecate in the open, in rivers and near areas where children play. These habits result in 115 deaths every hour in the African Region.

Bacteria, viruses, parasites and pollution contaminate freshwater stores resulting in water scarcity. Water scarcity is a major problem even in areas where there is plenty of rainfall. A lack of clean water increases the risk of diarrhoeal diseases as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery, and other water-borne tropical diseases. Water scarcity can also lead to diseases such as trachoma (an eye infection that can lead to blindness), plague and typhus.

Water scarcity affects 1 in 3 people in the African Region and is getting worse with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses.

Water scarcity often encourages people to store water in their homes. This can increase the risk of household water contamination and provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are carriers of dengue fever, malaria and other diseases.