Clean water update: 771 million people

The WHO and Unicef published a report last year about access to water and sanitation in 2020.
Fortunately, we are moving in the right direction: from 785 million to 771 million people without access to safe drinking water.

771 million people

The WHO and Unicef published the report “Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020, Five years into the SDG’s” last year.

The main conclusion is that we are moving in the right direction: from 785 million to 771 million people without access to safe drinking water. But there is still a lot of work to be done as 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.

Why is lack of clean drinking water a problem

122 MILLION DRINK DIT WATER

Of this large group of 771 million people, 122 million people are still completely dependent on surface water, with all the associated health risks.

The rest of these people depend on water supplies far away or with limited availability (282 million) or dependent on wells that are poorly maintained and polluted (367 million people).

By the way, 771 million is one and a half times as many as all the inhabitants of Europe put together.

To achieve universal access by 2030, we must quadruple our commitment.

World Health Organisation

SDG 6

The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations say, among other things, that by 2030 we want to give everyone access to safe drinking water and sanitation. (SDG6)

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 five years we have already managed to realize at least 10 billion liters of clean drinking water. With this we give at least 140,000 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 too?

Do you want to help with our mission: clean drinking water for everyone?
You can do that in more ways than you think.

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