Issues - overview 

Dirty water and inadequate sanitation are one of the biggest killers of children aged under five worldwide. Around a third of the world's population – 2.4 billion people – lack adequate sanitation facilities. And globally 663 million people do not have access to clean water. 
'Safe drinking water and adequate sanitation 
are crucial for poverty reduction, crucial for sustainable development and crucial for 
achieving any and every one of the 
Millennium Development Goals.'

– UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Why is this important?

Clean water and good sanitation are essential for health, education and livelihoods. Without safe water and sanitation facilities, people are trapped in a cycle of poverty, disease and poor quality of life. 

Consider the following facts:
  • Diarrhoea caused by dirty water, poor sanitation and inadequate hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year. That's around 2,300 people per day.
  • One in 10 childhood deaths in 2015 were due to diarrhoea – equating to one child dying every minute. That's 526,000 childhood deaths per year.
  • An estimated 47% of nine- to five-year-olds in developing countries are infested with soil-transmitted worms, and 1.5 billion people worldwide are affected. This is entirely because of inadequate sanitation and hygiene.
  • WHO estimates that 200 million years of schooling have been lost to worm-associated absences.
  • More than half of all primary schools in developing countries have inadequate water facilities and nearly two thirds lack separate toilets for girls and boys.
  • Women and girls in rural areas often spend up to six hours a day fetching water.

We believe in water and sanitation solutions that are community-led, low-cost, practical, sustainable and long-term. Above all, they must be owned, valued, maintained and protected by the community.

Water

We all need water to survive but for some people the only choice is to drink from polluted or disease-ridden sources. So serious is the water crisis that it is considered the number one global risk based on impact to society as a measure of devastation. 

Sanitation

Astonishing as it may sound, more people have a mobile phone than a toilet. One billion people practice open defecation – one of the main causes of diarrhoea (a major killer of children under five). Improving sanitation can reduce diarrhoea cases by around 28%.

Hygiene

Each year children lose 272 million school days due to diarrhoea. This has a big impact on their future prospects. Washing hands with soap can found to reduce diarrhoea by 23%. That would cut the number of schooling days lost to illness by 63 million a year.
Image credits, clockwise from top: Digging for water in Tanzania, by Susie Weldon. Gathering pond water in Bangladesh, by Shawn. Washing hands, by Truong Viet Hung/UNICEF Vietnam. Drainage in Kalibari community, by Ashley Wheaton/SuSanA Secretariat. Collecting water in India, ARC