Today’s infographic is from Raconteur, and it puts the global issue of water access into staggering perspective.
It’s a two-fold problem: safe drinking water is hard to come by, while basic access to sanitation is less common than you’d expect.
Many people in the world spend hours waiting in long lines, often multiple times a day, for community-shared water, or, they have to travel to distant sources just to collect it.
World regions are categorized according to five classifications for drinking water access.
After a change in river source in 2014, insufficient water treatment resulted in lead from pipes leaching into the drinking water, affecting over 100,000 residents.
This is because roughly 4.5 billion people still don’t have access to a toilet, with the problem being particularly acute on the African continent.
From an economic perspective, it’s easy to see why: An estimated $260 billion is lost globally each year from the lack of basic water and sanitation.
Almost $18.5 billion in benefits can come from universal access to basic water and sanitation.
Securing water access has profound consequences.
Between 2001 and 2015, there’s been a 9% improvement in safe drinking water, while safely managed sanitation has risen by 10%.