2 Billion People Drink Contaminated Water, Says WHO.
The most serious threats are in impoverished and developing areas.
Although there has been a push for safe drinking water by the UN General Assembly, which led to a 4.9 percent increase in budgets worldwide, most countries say it is not enough.
The report found that 80 percent of countries are not adequately meeting the UN standards.
In a statement WHO said when people can’t provide the most basic necessities, like repairing infrastructure, water safety and reliability is sacrificed first.
"This is a challenge we have the ability to solve," Guy Ryder, chair of UN-Water and director-general of the International Labour Organization, said.
"Increased investments in water and sanitation can yield substantial benefits for human health and development, generate employment and make sure that we leave no one behind."
This is a heavy burden on local communities, but as Ryder said, it is possible.
To really meet UN standards, the world budget for drinking water would have to triple, that’s $114 billion annually, to provide underserved areas.
Governments can also step up their game by increasing and sustaining WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) access for vulnerable groups, especially in rural areas.

Tripling infrastructure investment will make global water access a reality.
Countries are not investing in infrastructure fast enough to meet water and sanitation targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a new report published by World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Today, almost two billion people use a source of drinking water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio,” Dr Maria Neira, director of the department of public health, environmental and social determinants of health at the WHO said.
“Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause more than 500,000 diarrhoeal deaths each year and is a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma,” she added.
Global water budgets The report stressed that countries would not meet global goals of universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation unless steps are taken to use financial resources more efficiently and increase efforts to identify new sources of funding.
Yet, 80% of countries report that water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) financing is still insufficient to meet nationally defined targets for WASH services.
Lack of infrastructure The report showed that in many developing countries, current national coverage targets are based on achieving access to basic infrastructure, which may not always provide continuously safe and reliable services.
While the infrastructure funding gap remains vast, 147 countries have already showed their ability to mobilise the resources required to meet the Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of people without an improved source of water, while 95 countries met the corresponding target for sanitation.
These include taxes, tariffs (payments and labour from households), and transfers from donors.
“This is a challenge we have the ability to solve,” Guy Ryder, UN-Water chair said.

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.

UNITED NATIONS – Against the backdrop of almost two billion people around the world relying on sources of drinking-water contaminated with faeces, the United Nations has called on countries to “radically” increase investments in water and sanitation infrastructure not only to protect their populations from deadly diseases but also to ensure that they are able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause more than 500,000 diarrhoeal deaths each year and is a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma,” Maria Neira, the Director of Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at the UN World Health Organization (WHO), said in a statement on Thursday.
The UN report, Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water 2017, notes that while countries have increased their budgets for water, sanitation and hygiene at an average annual rate of about 4.9 per cent over the last three years, 80 per cent of countries have reported that the increase is still insufficient to meet nationally-defined targets for those services.
Therefore, in order to meet the ambitious SDG targets, which aim for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services by 2030, countries need to use financial resources more efficiently as well as increase efforts to identify new sources of funding.
The Global Assessment also highlights that these efforts are particularly important for developing countries where current national coverage targets are based on achieving access to basic infrastructure and which may not necessarily provide continuously safe and reliable services.
According to estimates by the World Bank, investments in infrastructure need to triple to $114 billion per year – a figure which does not include operating and maintenance costs.While this funding gap is vast, there are recent examples of countries having demonstrated the ability to mobilize the needed resources to meet development targets.
of halving the proportion of people without an improved source of water, and 95 among them met the corresponding target for sanitation.
“Increased investments in water and sanitation can yield substantial benefits for human health and development, generate employment and make sure that we leave no one behind,” he said.
This news was published in The Nation newspaper.
Read complete newspaper of 14-Apr-2017 here.

Radical increase in water and sanitation investment required to meet development targets.
"Today, almost two billion people use a source of drinking-water contaminated with faeces, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio," says Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health.
The report stresses that countries will not meet global aspirations of universal access to safe drinking-water and sanitation unless steps are taken to use financial resources more efficiently and increase efforts to identify new sources of funding.
Yet, 80% of countries report that water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) financing is still insufficient to meet nationally-defined targets for WASH services.
Planned investments have yet to take into account the much more ambitious SDG targets, which aim for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services by 2030.
In order to meet the SDG global targets, the World Bank estimates investments in infrastructure need to triple to US $114 billion per year – a figure which does not include operating and maintenance costs.
Additional Findings: Official development assistance (ODA) disbursements for water and sanitation are increasing, but future investments are uncertain.
However, aid commitments for water and sanitation have declined since 2012 from US$ 10.4 billion to US$ 8.2 billion in 2015.
Considering the greater needs to make progress towards universal access to safely managed WASH services under the SDG targets, the possibility of future reductions in aid disbursements is at odds with global aspirations.
Safe drinking-water and sanitation are crucial to human welfare, by supporting health and livelihoods and helping to create healthy environments.