The World Health Organization has warned that billions of people across the world are drinking contaminated water as a result of poor sanitation and a lack of investment.
Together with the UN, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a new report “UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2017.” While significant strides have been made in some areas of the world to secure and improve water supplies, the report found that many of the world’s poorest are still at risk from unsafe water because world governments are not investing enough money in infrastructure development in order to meet what are known as the ambitions Sustainable Development Goals.
The Sustainable Development Goals are a complex set of criteria that differs from nation to nation, but they all have one common goal: that by the year 2030 everyone in the world will have access to safe water.
For example, the report praises countries for increasing their annual spending on sanitation over the past three years.
While spending has increased, actual commitments to global aid for sanitation have decreased from US$ 10.4 billion to US$ 8.2 billion as of 2015.
A report from UNICEF issued in late March finds that 27 million people around the world are at risk of famine while also not having access to safe drinking water.
A lack of sanitation then creates more people who are unwell, and so the cycle continues.
That means that their spending can’t focus on the specific problem of safe water because they are still trying to establish things like reliable power and road access.
According to the World Bank data provided by WHO, an investment of some US $114 billion per year solely targeted at sanitation and securing water supplies would be needed.
Access to safe drinking water is one of the most fundamental and basic requirements we all need.