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Safe water saves lives.

Water is life. But when water is unsafe and sanitation non-existent, water can kill. Globally, waterborne illnesses are a leading cause of death for children under five, killing nearly 1,000 children every day.

UNICEF works in more than 100 countries to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities. Whether by delivering safe water after a disaster or promoting safe hygiene practices in schools and communities, UNICEF is on the ground helping children in need.

The UNICEF Tap Project benefited more than a half million people over 10 years by challenging supporters to drive awareness about global water issues - and raising critical funds for UNICEF'S WASH programs that reach those in need in places like Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Since 1990, with the help of UNICEF and its partners, some 2.6 billion people have gained access to safe drinking water. Yet climate change threatens to undo much of this progress. By 2040, 1 in 4 children - 600 million children - will live in areas of extremely high water stress. The poorest, most disadvantaged children will suffer the most.

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Water is life. But when water is unsafe and sanitation non-existent, water can kill. Globally, waterborne illnesses are a leading cause of death for children under five, killing nearly 1,000 children every day. UNICEF works in more than 100 countries to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities.

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Global water crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help

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There's nothing more essential than clean water, yet a global water crisis means people are struggling to get the quantity and quality of water they need.

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The power of water

Access to safe water can protect and save lives, just because it's there. Access to safe water has the power to turn time spent into time saved, when it's close and not hours away. Access to safe water can turn problems into potential: unlocking education, economic prosperity, and improved health.

Every human being deserves to define their own future, and water makes that possible. To lessen the impact of water shortages tomorrow, we must expand access to water today. We've transformed more than 58 million lives with access to safe water and sanitation, and together we can reach even more people.

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Water is essential to life, yet 771 million people in the world - 1 in 10 - lack access to it. Learn how you can help eliminate this unfortunate statistic today.

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Clean water is essential for life, but most people in the developed world don't think much about the water they use for drinking, food preparation, and sanitation. In developing nations, however, the search for safe drinking water can be a daily crisis. Millions of people die each year, most of them children, from largely preventable diseases caused by a lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation.

Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project and the National Geographic Society's freshwater fellow, said freshwater scarcity presents a growing problem to be addressed during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil from June 20 to 22. "It manifests itself in the depletion of groundwater, and the drying up of rivers and lakes upon which people depend for irrigation to grow their food," she said. "The intersection of water scarcity, food security, and a changing climate on top of it all raises a suite of water concerns that urgently need to be addressed."

Much progress is possible. In fact, due to the dedicated efforts of governments and NGOs since the 1992 Earth Summit, safe drinking water has been made available to some 1.7 billion people around the world, with projects ranging from modern piped plumbing to rainwater collection and storage.

But an estimated 880 million people still don't have regular access to clean water. "And we haven't made nearly as much progress on sanitation," Postel said. "Something like 2.7 billion people are without adequate sanitation, so that challenge still looms very large." Policymakers will struggle to lower both numbers even as the planet's population rises by an expected three billion over the next 50 to 75 years.

Serious Challenges

About 5,000 children die each day due to preventable diarrheal diseases such as cholera and dysentery, which spread when people use contaminated water for drinking or cooking. A lack of water for personal hygiene leads to the spread of totally preventable ailments like trachoma, which has blinded some six million people.

Water woes also trap many low-income families in a cycle of poverty and poor education-and the poorest suffer most from lack of access to water. People who spend much of their time in ill health, caring for sick children, or laboriously collecting water at distances averaging 3.75 miles (6 kilometers) a day are denied educational and economic opportunities to better their lives.

Competition can be fierce for this precious commodity. Agriculture claims the lion's share of freshwater worldwide, soaking up some 70 percent, and industrial uses consume another 22 percent. Watersheds and aquifers don't respect political borders and nations don't always work together to share common resources-so water can be a frequent source of international conflict as well.

Day-by-day demand keeps growing, further draining water sources, from great rivers to underground aquifers. "We're going deeper into debt on our groundwater use," Postel said, "and that has very significant impacts for global water security. The rate of groundwater depletion has doubled since 1960."

Some of Earth's groundwater is fossil water, created when Earth's climate was far different. Today such water is as finite as petroleum. Other aquifers are renewable. "But we're pumping many of them out faster than precipitation is recharging them," Postel explained. "This is the case underneath the breadbasket of India, underneath the wheat and cornfields on the plains of north China, under California's Central Valley. We need to bring withdrawals into balance with recharge."

Humanity's growing thirst also poses a major problem for aquatic ecosystems. "When we take water from rivers, floodplains, and watersheds, those ecosystems bear the brunt of water scarcity and begin to be degraded or disappear," she said. "And that also creates a cost to us, not just to nature, because we also depend upon those ecosystems."

The Path to Solutions

The silver lining, Postel noted, is that many opportunities exist to use the water we do have more productively. Change begins with more efficient management of water resources.

"Seventy percent of all the water we use globally is for agriculture, so that's where we first have to become a lot more efficient through methods like drip irrigation and growing crops that are more suitable to the local climate," Postel said. "We still have too few incentives for farmers to use water more efficiently. Farmers are good businesspeople; they respond to incentives that affect their bottom line."

The United National General Assembly has recognized "the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights." Making that right become a universal reality, and providing each person on the planet with affordable access to the 20 to 50 liters of daily water required to sustain life, is a clear goal for the decades ahead.

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Sustainable Earth: Water - National Geographic

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Safeguarding one of the world's most important resources.

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Experts Name the Top 19 Solutions to the Global Freshwater Crisis

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"...Decisions executives make to respond to freshwater scarcity will penetrate almost every aspect of their business operations."

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The Water Project - A Charity Providing Access to Clean Water in Africa

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The Water Project is a charity that provides access to clean, safe and reliable water and sanitation solutions across sub-Saharan Africa, one village at a time.

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Importance Of Clean Water And Its Uses | Periwinkle

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Clean and Safe Water Projects: UNICEF's Mission

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Clean and Safe Water Projects: UNICEF's Mission

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Safe water saves lives.

Water is life. But when water is unsafe and sanitation non-existent, water can kill. Globally, waterborne illnesses are a leading cause of death for children under five, killing nearly 1,000 children every day.

UNICEF works in more than 100 countries to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities. Whether by delivering safe water after a disaster or promoting safe hygiene practices in schools and communities, UNICEF is on the ground helping children in need.

The UNICEF Tap Project benefited more than a half million people over 10 years by challenging supporters to drive awareness about global water issues - and raising critical funds for UNICEF'S WASH programs that reach those in need in places like Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Since 1990, with the help of UNICEF and its partners, some 2.6 billion people have gained access to safe drinking water. Yet climate change threatens to undo much of this progress. By 2040, 1 in 4 children - 600 million children - will live in areas of extremely high water stress. The poorest, most disadvantaged children will suffer the most.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Water is life. But when water is unsafe and sanitation non-existent, water can kill. Globally, waterborne illnesses are a leading cause of death for children under five, killing nearly 1,000 children every day. UNICEF works in more than 100 countries to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities.

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Coordinated by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), AquaFed - The International Federation of Private Water Operators and the World Youth Parliament for Water for World Water Day and by World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for World Toilet Day.

The Task Force consists of African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW), CDP Worldwide, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Green Climate Fund, Global Water Partnership (GWP), Human Right 2 Water, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR), International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), International Labour Organization (ILO), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Public Services International (PSI), Sanitation and Water for All (SWA), Toilet Board Coalition, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Global Compact, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Women for Water Partnership (WfWP) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

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World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2 billion people living without access to safe water. Join the campaign and take action to tackle the global water crisis.

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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

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The Sustainable Development Goals Explained: Clean Water and Sanitation

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The Sustainable Development Goals Explained: Clean Water and Sanitation

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The Sustainable Development Goals Explained: Clean Water and Sanitation

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SDG Resources for Educators - Clean Water and Sanitation

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SDG Resources for Educators - Clean Water and Sanitation

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SDG Resources for Educators - Clean Water and Sanitation

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Water is essential to life. It constitutes up to 65% of the human body and 90% of the structure of plants. Thus, if deprived of water, no living being can survive for long. Nevertheless, this fundamental element to existence is seriously threatened because of pollution of rivers, suffers shortages i…

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Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all

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Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all

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Explained | World's Water Crisis | FULL EPISODE | Netflix

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Explained | World's Water Crisis | FULL EPISODE | Netflix

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Explained | World's Water Crisis | FULL EPISODE | Netflix

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The Adventure is an interactive tour at our headquarters in New York City designed and tailored just for kids. Throughout the tour, you'll collect stamps on your own personalized passport, pump a fully functioning well, be transported to Ethiopia via our Virtual Reality film, and more - all while learning about charity: water's mission to end the global water crisis.
Request a Tour

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Kids' Resources - How to Get Involved | charity: water

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The Adventure is an interactive tour at our headquarters in New York City designed and tailored just for kids. Throughout the tour, you'll collect stamps on your own personalized passport, pump a fully functioning well, be transported to Ethiopia via our Virtual Reality film, and more - all while learning about charity: water's mission to end the global water crisis.

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Water Changes Everything | charity: water

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Fresh water scarcity: An introduction to the problem - Christiana Z. Peppard

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Fresh water scarcity: An introduction to the problem - Christiana Z. Peppard

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Fresh water scarcity: An introduction to the problem - Christiana Z. Peppard

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Are we running out of clean water? - Balsher Singh Sidhu

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Are we running out of clean water? - Balsher Singh Sidhu

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Are we running out of clean water? - Balsher Singh Sidhu

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Thomas and Friends on Clean Water & Sanitation

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Thomas and Friends on Clean Water & Sanitation

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Thomas & Friends on Clean Water & Sanitation - Goal #6

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More than 800 children under age 5 die every day from diarrhea caused by contaminated water, poor sanitation, and unsafe hygiene. But we believe the global water and sanitation crisis can be solved within our lifetimes. That's why we're focused on ensuring clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for every person in every community we work in, including the most vulnerable populations in the hardest-to-reach places. This work is more important now than ever, since clean water is essential for handwashing and disinfection to prevent the spread of diseases like COVID-19.

More than 800 children under age 5 die every day from diarrhea caused by contaminated water, poor sanitation, and unsafe hygiene. But we believe the global water and sanitation crisis can be solved within our lifetimes. That's why we're focused on providing clean water and sanitation to every person in every community we work in, including the most vulnerable populations in the hardest-to-reach places. This work is more important now than ever, since clean water is essential for handwashing and disinfection to prevent the spread of diseases like COVID-19.

Ways to Give to Clean Water

Share of a deep well

What's the first thing our well-drilling teams do when they come to a thirsty community? Pray. They know that dirty water and poor sanitation and hygiene result in the deaths of more than 800 children every day.

Help one of our teams rig-drill a deep well and fit it with a hand pump. One well can provide 2,800 gallons of clean, life-sustaining water every day for as many as 300 people. Your gift to help drill a deep well will contribute to saving lives for years to come.

Become a Clean Water Partner

You can help kids and families experience the transformation that comes when communities get clean water. World Vision is the leading nongovernmental provider of clean water in the developing world. Thanks to partners like you, we're reaching one new person every 10 seconds with clean water - and we have an ambitious but achievable plan to help end the global water crisis within our lifetimes.

Every $1 you give to the Clean Water Fund has the impact of $5, thanks to support from public grants, child sponsorship, foundations, and corporations.
Monthly giving is the most effective way to help children and families who need it most. Plus, it lowers costs, which means more of your gift helps kids!

Ways to Give to Clean Water

Provide clean water and sanitation: $30+

Giving to the Clean Water Fund will help bring clean water, sanitation, and hygiene to communities - helping cut child deaths by more than half!

Monthly giving is the most effective way to help children and families who need it most. Plus, it lowers costs, which means more of your gift helps kids!

Become a Clean Water Partner

You can help kids and families experience the transformation that comes when communities get clean water. World Vision is the leading nongovernmental provider of clean water in the developing world. Thanks to partners like you, we're reaching one new person every 10 seconds with clean water - and we have an ambitious but achievable plan to help end the global water crisis within our lifetimes.

Every $1 you give to the Clean Water Fund has the impact of $5, thanks to support from public grants, child sponsorship, foundations, and corporations.
Monthly giving is the most effective way to help children and families who need it most. Plus, it lowers costs, which means more of your gift helps kids!

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World Vision is the leading NGO provider of clean water in the developing world, reaching someone every 10 seconds with clean water. Join us in saving lives.