»Ein Viertel der Weltbevölkerung hat keinen Zugang zu sauberem Trinkwasser«

Despite progress over the last decade, billions of people around the world still lack access to essential water, sanitation, and hygiene services, putting them at risk of disease and deeper social exclusion. 

A new report: Progress on Household Drinking Water and Sanitation 2000–2024: special focus on inequalities –launched by WHO and UNICEF during World Water Week 2025 – reveals that, while some progress has been made, major gaps persist. People living in low-income countries, fragile contexts, rural communities, children, and minority ethnic and indigenous groups face the greatest disparities. 

Ten key facts from the report:

• Despite gains since 2015, 1 in 4 – or 2.1 billion people globally – still lack access to safely managed drinking water*, including 106 million who drink directly from untreated surface sources.
• 3.4 billion people still lack safely managed sanitation, including 354 million who practice open defecation.
• 1.7 billion people still lack basic hygiene services at home, including 611 million without access to any facilities.
• People in least developed countries are more than twice as likely as people in other countries to lack basic drinking water and sanitation services, and more than three times as likely to lack basic hygiene.
• In fragile contexts, safely managed drinking water coverage is 38 percentage points lower than in other countries, highlighting stark inequalities.
• While there have been improvements for people living in rural areas, they still lag behind. Safely managed drinking water coverage rose from 50 per cent to 60 per cent between 2015 and 2024, and basic hygiene coverage from 52 per cent to 71 per cent. In contrast, drinking water and hygiene coverage in urban areas has stagnated.
   

Den gesamten Bericht finden Sie hier.