The global water crisis

The global water crisis has been declared the number one global risk based on impact to society as a measure of devastation, and the eighth global risk most likely to occur within 10 years, by the World Economic Forum in January 2015. 
'The crisis is not that there is not enough 
water on Earth to meet all needs; it is a 
crisis of there not being enough water 
where we want it, when we want it, of 
sufficient quality to meet these needs.'

– Water in the World We Want, 2015 

What does this mean for ...

... poor people?

For around 12% of the world's population – 884 million people – it means they don't have even a basic drinking-water source. At least 2 billion people use water contaminated with faeces.

... women and girls?

For women and girls, it means spending hours every day fetching water for washing and cooking – up to six hours a day in rural areas. 

... young children?

For children, it means increased risk of dying from diarrhoea caused by dirty water and lack of sanitation. Around 361,000 children aged under five die from diarrhoea each year.

... school children?

For school children globally, it means 200 million days of education lost to illness every year, which has a big impact on their future prospects.

Sustainable Development Goals

Water in other SDGs
Picture
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be launched by the United Nations later this year are a new set of global goals that countries will use to focus their efforts to reduce poverty and improve people's lives. 

There are 17 SDGs and the one that focuses on water is Goal 6.

SDG6 aims to: 'Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.' 

This goal sets a target of 2030 for everyone to have access to safe drinking water as well as adequate sanitation and hygiene. 

This includes ending open defecation and paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations. But it also includes protecting water sources and fragile water-related ecosystems and reducing water pollution. 
So central is water to all our lives, and therefore to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals that it is also explicitly integrated into four other SDGs, such as

Goal 3 (Health and well-being): 
  • Combat water-borne diseases 
  • Reduce deaths/illness from water pollution and contamination

Goal 11 (Safe and healthy cities and villages)
  • Reduce impacts of water-related disasters

Goal 12 (Sustainable consumption)
  • Sound management of wastes to reduce releases to water

Goal 15 (Sustainable ecosystems, land and biodiversity)
  • Sustainable use of freshwater ecosystems and their services
  • Reduce impact of invasive alien species on water ecosystems
Image credits, clockwise from top:  Collecting water from a dry riverbed, by Marisol Grandon/DFID. Nepalese boy, by Khooyu. Girl in Kibera slum, 
by Mary Bellekom. Fetching water in Ghana, by Susie Weldon. Blessed tap, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, by Heather Arney/Water.org.