Global Water Crisis: Access to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation

One in four people still lack safely managed drinking water, and billions lack sanitation—proof that the water crisis remains one of the most urgent public-health and development challenges of our time.

The scope of the water crisis—by the numbers

A new WHO/UNICEF update confirms that roughly 1 in 4 people worldwide lack access to safely managed drinking water—about 2.1 billion individuals. At the same time, 3.4 billion people still lack safely managed sanitation, and 1.7 billion lack basic hygiene services at home, underscoring how deep and persistent the water crisis remains. These are not abstract figures; they translate into higher disease burdens, missed school days, and lost income for households already living on the margins.

Zooming out, the long-term trend shows progress—but not fast enough. Between 2000 and 2024, billions did gain services, yet the pace of improvement has slowed in many places, and the absolute numbers remain staggering because populations grew just as infrastructure investments lagged. The latest JMP report warns that the world is off-track to meet the 2030 targets for universal access, illustrating why the water crisis demands sustained financing and policy focus.

Where gaps are largest—and why

The water crisis is most acute in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where rapid urbanization, climate volatility, and under-resourced utilities collide. Rural households often travel long distances for sources that may be seasonal or contaminated; informal settlements in booming cities face intermittent service, unsafe storage, and weak sewer networks. Climate change acts as a risk multiplier—longer droughts, erratic rainfall, and flood-driven contamination push fragile systems past their limits, as recent reporting from Malawi and other climate-exposed regions shows.

Infrastructure deficits are only part of the story. Governance and finance matter. Utilities need tariff structures that recover costs while protecting poor households; local agencies need the autonomy to plan, maintain, and extend networks; and national regulators must enforce quality standards. Without those elements, even donor-funded pipes and pumps can fail—perpetuating the water crisis in communities meant to be “covered” on paper.

Sanitation and hygiene: the hidden emergency

Sanitation often lags water supply, yet it is equally decisive for health and dignity. In 2022, 3.5 billion people still lacked safely managed sanitation, and open defecation—though declining—remained at 419 million people. The 2025 update shows progress, but hundreds of millions still practice open defecation, keeping transmission pathways for cholera, typhoid, and dysentery wide open. That reality keeps the water crisis in motion even where basic water access has improved.

Hygiene is the third leg of the WASH stool. Half of healthcare facilities still lack basic hand-hygiene facilities at the point of care—an astonishing gap that raises infection risk for patients and providers alike. Hand-hygiene programs can prevent up to 50% of avoidable infections and deliver economic returns that far exceed costs, but only if water, soap, and infrastructure are reliably in place. This is why the water crisis can’t be solved by pipes alone; it requires hygiene systems that work every day.

Who bears the heaviest burden

Women and girls shoulder disproportionate costs from the water crisis. In many communities, they spend hours daily collecting water, limiting time for school, caregiving, and income-generating work. Inadequate sanitation also heightens safety risks and contributes to absenteeism during menstruation. When utilities expand coverage close to home and schools add reliable WASH facilities, attendance and retention rise—small victories that accumulate into generational change.

Children pay another price through disease. Diarrheal illnesses linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation remain a leading cause of malnutrition and stunting. Safe water at home, functional school latrines, and basic hand-washing facilities are among the most cost-effective child-health interventions available—yet gaps persist because the water crisis is as much about maintenance and service reliability as it is about new construction.

What works: proven solutions that scale

Despite headwinds, there is a clear playbook for shrinking the water crisis:

Protect sources and treat water close to where it’s used. Household filters and solar disinfection help in the interim, but durable gains come from utility-scale treatment and safe distribution, backed by monitoring that flags contamination in real time.
Invest in safely managed sanitation. Expanding sewers where feasible, and deploying fecal-sludge management (FSM) where they’re not, can rapidly reduce exposure. Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) strategies mix networked and non-networked approaches to reach dense settlements faster.
Fund maintenance, not just ribbon-cuttings. The water crisis often reappears when pumps fail and spare parts or technicians are out of reach. Contracts and budgets should ring-fence operations, maintenance, and lifecycle replacement.
Strengthen local utilities. Performance-based grants, technical twinning with high-performing utilities, and transparent benchmarking build the managerial spine systems need to expand equitably.
Design for climate resilience. Diversified sources (surface, groundwater, reuse), watershed restoration, leak reduction, and flood-proofed assets keep services running through shocks that otherwise deepen the water crisis.

Technology and innovation

Innovation is helping stretch scarce resources and accelerate coverage. Remote sensors catch leaks; smart meters reduce non-revenue water; satellite data and machine-learning models help planners map contamination risks and prioritize investments. Low-cost hand-hygiene devices designed for off-grid settings are already improving safety where piped systems are years away—practical tools to blunt the water crisis while longer-term networks are built.

Policy priorities for a turning point

Meeting SDG 6 won’t happen by accident. The path out of the water crisis runs through three policy levers:

Finance at scale. Blend concessional loans, domestic revenue, climate funds, and results-based grants to move from pilot projects to utility-wide upgrades.
Equity first. Track service for the poorest quintiles, informal settlements, and rural hamlets—not averages. The latest JMP reports emphasize widening inequalities and warn that universality is slipping out of reach without targeted action.
Accountability and data. Routine water-quality testing, public service dashboards, and independent regulation align incentives so the water crisis can’t hide behind outdated coverage maps.

Bottom line

The water crisis is solvable. The numbers are daunting, but the solutions are known, cost-effective, and already working where leadership, finance, and accountability align. If governments and partners scale what works—safe drinking-water systems, dignified sanitation, reliable hygiene—the payoff is immediate: fewer infections, stronger schools, more productive economies, and communities resilient to the climate shocks of the decade ahead.

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Water Crisis | Why Billions of Folks Cant Easily Get a Drink