Lack of adequate sanitary facilities and poor hygienic practices are common throughout the developing countries; the lowest levels of service coverage are to be found in Asia and Africa where more than half of the rural populations are excluded from any measurable progress in this area. Globally, 2.4 billion people, most of them in developing countries, do not have access to improved sanitation facilities. Data collected over ten years show that little progress has been made in reducing this number.

Already, one third of the world’s population lives in countries facing moderate to high water stress, if not water scarcity, and water tables are falling in every continent. If present trends continue unchecked, it is estimated that two out of three people on earth will live in water-stressed conditions by the year 2025. Globally, 1.1 billion people are today without access to a clean and adequate water supply. And too little water for basic needs makes it virtually impossible to maintain the necessary minimum of personal hygiene and sanitary conditions in the home.

- World Health Organization (WHO)



Water demand is increasing three times as fast as the world's
population growth rate, and poverty is the single most important factor related to meeting that demand, said officials at the 3rd World Water Forum. Some 1.2 billion people lack a safe water supply and 2.4 billion live without secure sanitation, according to Water Forum official figures. At least five million people die yearly from water related diseases, including 2.2 million children under the age of five. An estimated one half of people in developing countries are suffering from diseases caused either directly by infection through the consumption of contaminated water or food, or indirectly by disease carrying organisms, such as mosquitoes, that breed in water.

- Environment News Service



In September 2000, the largest-ever gathering of Heads of State ushered in the new millennium by adopting the UN Millennium Declaration. The Declaration, endorsed by 189 countries, was then translated into a roadmap setting out goals to be reached by 2015. The eight Millenium Declaration goals build on agreements made at United Nations conferences in the 1990s and represent commitments to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation.

1. Halve by 2-15, the proportion of people without sustainable access
to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
2. Integrate sanitation into water resources management strategies

- World Health Organization (WHO)

Lack of safe water and sanitation is the world’s single largest cause of illness. In 2002, 42 per cent of households had no toilets, and one in six people had no access to safe water.

The toll on children is especially high. About 4,500 children die each day from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation facilities. The young and the old are particularly vulnerable. Over 90 percent
of deaths from diarrhoeal diseases due to unsafe water and sanitation in the developing world occur in children below 5 years old.

- UNICEF



Almost half of the nearly 2 million deaths from diarrhea each year could be prevented through an understanding of basic hygiene. Water is fundamental for life and health. The human right to water is indispensable for leading a healthy life in human dignity. It is a pre-requisite to the realization of all other human rights.

- United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, Environment News Service