The lack of clean water affects the lives of a large part of the world's population, especially women and girls. The world now has only twelve years to secure the water supply for two billion people - if the global goals are to be met.
Providing the world's population with clean water has been on the UN's agenda since its inception and is one of the global goals for world development that must be met in twelve years. When the global goals were adopted, the way of measuring people's access to clean water changed. Nowadays, it is required that the water that a household uses must be available at the home, that the supply must be constant and that the water must be of sufficiently good quality.
According to this definition, 29 percent of the world's population, just over two billion people, lack access to clean water.
There are similar requirements when it comes to sanitation. In order for a household to be considered to have serviceable sanitation, the toilet must not be shared with other households and faeces must be able to be taken care of in such a way that bacteria do not spread in the immediate environment.
According to this definition, 61 percent, ie 4.5 billion people, lack access to good sanitation.
Lack of water and sanitation can have devastating consequences for human health. Many diseases, such as diarrhea and cholera, are due to a lack of clean water or poor hygiene. Having the ability to wash your hands with soap and water can in many cases be vital. And if there is no proper toilet nearby, the existing water resources can be easily polluted.
Women and girls are particularly hard hit by the lack of water and sanitation. It is about everything from the safety risk of being forced to fulfill one's needs in a dark hidden place to being forced to drop out of school due to menstruation or that most of one's waking time is spent fetching water.
The lack of water has many causes, depending on where in the world you are. For many countries, drought is a major problem - climate change means that rainy periods in many places are absent or shorter than usual. Increasing desertification has a very negative impact on water resources.
Toxic substances in the water are another problem. In addition to the fact that the lack of toilets can lead to pollution, industrial emissions are often the culprit behind unusable water. In addition, the protracted wars and conflicts we see in the world today are devastating to access to water.
Ensuring access to clean water is one of the global goals and an important task for many donors working with the water issue.
Providing the world's population with clean water has been on the UN's agenda since its inception and is one of the global goals for world development that must be met in twelve years. When the global goals were adopted, the way of measuring people's access to clean water changed. Nowadays, it is required that the water that a household uses must be available at the home, that the supply must be constant and that the water must be of sufficiently good quality.
According to this definition, 29 percent of the world's population, just over two billion people, lack access to clean water.
There are similar requirements when it comes to sanitation. In order for a household to be considered to have serviceable sanitation, the toilet must not be shared with other households and faeces must be able to be taken care of in such a way that bacteria do not spread in the immediate environment.
According to this definition, 61 percent, ie 4.5 billion people, lack access to good sanitation.
Lack of water and sanitation can have devastating consequences for human health. Many diseases, such as diarrhea and cholera, are due to a lack of clean water or poor hygiene. Having the ability to wash your hands with soap and water can in many cases be vital. And if there is no proper toilet nearby, the existing water resources can be easily polluted.
Women and girls are particularly hard hit by the lack of water and sanitation. It is about everything from the safety risk of being forced to fulfill one's needs in a dark hidden place to being forced to drop out of school due to menstruation or that most of one's waking time is spent fetching water.
The lack of water has many causes, depending on where in the world you are. For many countries, drought is a major problem - climate change means that rainy periods in many places are absent or shorter than usual. Increasing desertification has a very negative impact on water resources.
Toxic substances in the water are another problem. In addition to the fact that the lack of toilets can lead to pollution, industrial emissions are often the culprit behind unusable water. In addition, the protracted wars and conflicts we see in the world today are devastating to access to water.
Ensuring access to clean water is one of the global goals and an important task for many donors working with the water issue.
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