Two Billion People Don’t Have Access to Clean Water.
United Nations — More than two billion people lack access to clean and safe drinking water, according to a new report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Although significant progress to ensure access to drinking water has been achieved, there is still a long way to go to ensure its quality — deemed free from pollutants and safe for drinking.
While many countries like India have made it a top priority, many others haven’t been able to emphasise the issue yet," Sanjay Wijesekera, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF, told IPS.
This puts lives, especially of young children, at great risk.
Wijesekera added.
A lack of access to clean drinking water is also bad news for hygiene and sanitary levels.
While the global drop in open defecation from 20 to 12 percent between 2000 and 2015 is a welcome fact, the rate of decline, at just .7 percent every year, puts pressure on governments to do more.
Still, some countries like Ethiopia have combatted the issue of open defecation successfully.
Critical building blocks like stronger policies at the government levels and dutiful allocation of funds can go a long way," Wijesekera said.