Water and Sanitation and Hygiene

Access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene is absolutely essential for human health and well-being. If progress doesn't quadruple, billions of people will still lack access to these critical services by 2030. The demand for water is skyrocketing due to rapid population growth, urbanization, and increasing water needs from the agriculture, industry, and energy sectors. In 2022, 2.2 billion people still lacked access to safely managed drinking water, which includes 703 million without basic water services. Additionally, 3.5 billion people lacked access to safely managed sanitation, including 1.5 billion without basic sanitation services. Moreover, 2 billion people lacked a basic handwashing facility, with 653 million having no handwashing facility at all. Water is crucial not only for health but also for poverty reduction, food security, peace, and human rights. It also impacts ecosystems and education.