Access to Portable Water

Access to safe water can protect and save lives, just because it’s there. Access to safe
water has the power to turn time spent into time saved, when it’s close and not
hours away.

Water-Related Challenges
• 2.1 billion people lack access to safely man-
aged drinking water services. (WHO/UNICEF
2017)
• 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sani-
tation services. (WHO/UNICEF 2017)
• 340,000 children under five die every year
from diarrheal diseases. (WHO/UNICEF
2015)
• Water scarcity already affects four out of ev-
ery 10 people. (WHO)
• 90% of all natural disasters are water-related.
(UNISDR)
• 80% of wastewater flows back into the eco-
system without being treated or reused (UNE-
SCO, 2017).
• Around two-thirds of the world’s trans-
boundary rivers do not have a cooperative
management framework. (SIWI)
• Agriculture accounts for 70% of global water
withdrawal. (FAO)
• Roughly 75% of all industrial water with-
drawals are used for energy production. (UN-
ESCO, 2014)
https://water.org/about-us/why-water/
Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, Report of
the Secretary-General. 2020.
Actions Taken By the UN
The United Nations has determined that
water access and security is paramount
to human existence through Sustainable
Development Goal 6, which emphasizes
that the UN’s purpose is to “ensure avail-
ability and sustainable management of
water and sanitation for all.”
Over the past half-century, the Unit-
ed Nations has served as the leader in
the promotion and development of pro-
grams for the access to clean, drinkable
water. In the 1977, world leaders met in
Argentina to discuss the available water
supply and access routes. In the 1980s,
The UN sought to address sanitation of
the global water supply. In the 1990s,
there was a focus on water as a critical
resource to environmental stability. In
the 2000s, the UN has focused on the
delivery of water to isolate and underde-
veloped regions. Looking ahead to 2030,
seeks to reduce the instances of drought
and related famine through securing a
consistent water supply.