One in four people lack safe drinking water

The inequalities of the lack of WASH services impact females in particular, as they typically bear the extra burden of water collection (from a well as seen in this filepic of Indian villagers) and additional challenges during menstruation. — AFP

More than two billion people worldwide still lack access to safely-managed drinking water, the United Nations’ health and children’s agencies said on Aug 26 (2025).

Over 100 million people remain reliant on drinking surface water, e.g. from rivers, ponds and canals, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef.