Drinking Water, Sanitation and Health: A Foreseeable 21 Century Crisis

Access to safe drinking water is essential to human life. Access to improved sanitation reduces the burden of disease in communities and supports human dignity. Together, safe drinking water and improved sanitation are critical to economic development, the eradication of poverty and the public’s health. In 2015, an estimated 90% of the global population had access to an improved water supply and 68% had access to improved sanitation. Nonetheless, as many as 1.8 billion people may have access to ‘improved’ drinking water that has fecal contamination, and 673 million people still practice open defecation (United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6).