Clean drinking water update: 696 million people still lack access
De WHO en Unicef brengen periodiek een rapport uit over de toegang tot water en sanitatie.
Gelukkig gaan we de goede kant op: van 785 miljoen mensen in 2000 naar 696 miljoen mensen zonder toegang tot veilig drinkwater op dit moment.
696 million people
A few years ago, the World Health Organisation and Unicef published the report “Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020, Five years into the SDG’s“.
In 2023, a more recent drinking water fact sheet was added. And in 2025, Unicef published a report.
The main conclusion is that we are moving in the right direction: from 785 million people without access to safe drinking water in 2000, via 771 million in 2020 to 696 million in 2025. But there is still a lot of work to be done because the impact for still 1 in 10 people is enormous.
According to the World Economic Forum, the water crisis is even in the top 5 of global threats to society as a whole.
106 MILLION DRINK SURFACE WATER
Of this large group of 696 million people, 106 million people are still completely dependent on surface water with all the health risks that this entails.
The rest of these people depend on water supplies far away or with limited availability (287 million) or dependent on wells that are poorly maintained and polluted (302 million people).
By the way, 696 million is one and a half times as many as all the inhabitants of Europe put together.
SDG 6
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals state, among other things, that we want to give everyone access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2030. (SDG 6)
Although a positive development is visible, we are not going to make it with the current effort. In fact, we need to do four times as much as in the last 5 years to get to where we really want to do well.
Unfortunately, the countries where these people live are often unable to pay for or organize the water supplies themselves.
A drop?
Is our contribution then a drop in the ocean? Certainly not: in the past years, we have already managed to realise at least 25 billion litres of clean drinking water. With this, we give at least 150,000 people permanent access to good facilities. That is just as much as the whole of Den Bosch and about 1% of the progress of this area worldwide.
A small contribution can already make a difference: for just over 20 euros we can give someone permanent access to safe drinking water. And for only 2.50 you can give someone enough clean drinking water for a year to drink, cook and wash!
Contribute to our mission too
You can do so in more ways than you might think.
