Water and sanitation: where are we?

Photo by Samad Deldar on pexels.com 

2.1 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water; 3.4 billion people lack safely managed sanitation; 1.7 billion people lack basic hygiene services at home, including 611 million with no access to any facilities. These are some of the key findings from Progress on Household Drinking Water and Sanitation 2000–2024: Special Focus on Inequalities, the latest joint report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), published in August 2025. 

These results are concerning, given that there are fewer than five years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established within the 2030 Agenda, particularly Goal 6, which is specifically related to water and sanitation. However, the report highlights how 2.2 billion “gained access to safely managed drinking water, and a third (2.8 billion) gained safely managed sanitation”; despite this, the inequality in terms of access to water, sanitation, and health services (WASH) has increased globally. The number of people without access to safe drinking water services has declined; however, in low-income countries and urban areas in general, this number has actually increased, revealing a stagnated situation. 

Basic hygiene services are particularly crucial when it comes to menstrual management: the report states that data collected from 70 countries show that menstrual materials and private spaces are available; nevertheless, it clarifies that more data is needed to provide a proper analysis on the matter. Indeed, “many lack sufficient resources to manage menstruation effectively”. This inevitably affects participation in school, work, and social activities, which could lead to further marginalisation. Using gender lenses to analyze these issues is relevant when it comes to water collection, too: as a matter of fact, in most countries, women and girls are mainly responsible for water collection, “with many in sub-Saharan Africa and Central/Southern Asia spending over 30 minutes per day fetching water”. 

Overall, the progress achieved during the last decade, despite being remarkable, is still not enough; international action and cooperation are needed to ensure equal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene, which aren’t privileges, but basic human rights, as stated by Dr Ruediger Krech, Acting Director for Environment, Climate Change and Health at WHO. 

written by Alice Scotti