As soils are depleted, human health, vitality and intelligence go with them.
- Louis Bromfield
The Surprising Solutions to the World's Water Crisis
Access to clean water, sanitary facilities, and hygiene is essential for survival, yet for many people, it remains a daily struggle.
According to the United Nations' 2022 World Water Report, more than two billion people still lacked regular access to clean water, with 1.2 billion of them deprived of even basic water supplies.
These individuals either need more than half an hour to reach a water source or rely on water from rivers and contaminated sources. Eight out of ten affected people live in rural areas, with over half of these individuals residing in developing countries of the Global South.
Access to sanitation is even more critical: one in four people worldwide cannot wash their hands at home with water and soap, and many are forced to relieve themselves outdoors, leading to heightened risks of diarrheal diseases, parasitic infections, and malnutrition.
Recognizing access to clean water and sanitation as a fundamental human right, the United Nations has made it a core goal to improve global water and sanitation access.
The target is ambitious yet essential: by 2030, every person worldwide should have permanent, reliable, and affordable access to water and sanitation facilities.
While progress has been made since 2015, the pace of implementation remains far too slow to meet this deadline.
To achieve it, the UN estimates that global efforts need to quadruple. By enhancing water and sanitation access alone, the UN projects that over 800,000 lives could be saved each year.
Yet, findings from a study published in The Lancet go even further: based on epidemiological data and risk factors from 2019, researchers estimated that universal access to clean water and sanitation could prevent at least 1.4 million deaths annually—equivalent to about 2.5% of global deaths.
The majority of preventable deaths linked to unsafe water are due to diarrheal diseases, which account for one million deaths. Additionally, around 400,000 fatalities due to acute respiratory infections, often stemming from inadequate hand hygiene, are also preventable.
According to researchers, the disease burden from parasitic roundworms could almost be eradicated with an effective water and sewage infrastructure.
Despite the clear health benefits that would result from universal access to clean water and toilets, water scarcity remains the most pressing challenge.
This scarcity isn’t solely due to the slow expansion of supply; climate change is also turning water into an increasingly limited resource.
In North Africa and Western Asia, up to 84% of all renewable freshwater resources are extracted annually. Globally, about 19% of renewable freshwater resources are consumed, yet over 733 million people—nearly 10% of the world’s population at the time—live in countries facing high or critical water stress (above 75%).
High water stress has devastating consequences for the environment; in the past 300 years, more than 85% of the world’s wetlands have been lost, primarily due to drainage.
It also exacerbates social conflicts over limited water supplies. Agriculture remains the largest driver of water stress.
According to the UN, the key to reducing water stress lies in improving water-use efficiency in agriculture, particularly in arid regions.
