2.1 Billion People Worldwide Lack Access To Safe, Readily Available Water At Home - UNICEF

Growing demand for water, coupled with poor water management, has increased water stress in many parts of the world. For instance, 2017 global water assessment by World Health Organisation, WHO, and United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, showed that many people, particularly in the rural areas, lack access to water.

It further revealed that 2.1 billion people, worldwide, lack access to safe, readily available water at home and 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation. Climate change is adding to the pressure.

However, with demand for fresh water projected to grow by more than 40 per cent by the middle of the century, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, says water scarcity has become an enormous concern. According to him, the world cannot afford to take water crisis for granted because water is a matter of life and death and many of the most serious diseases in the developing world are directly related to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and insufficient hygiene practices.

Guterres also noted that, by 2050, at least 1 in 4 people will live in a country where the lack of fresh water will be chronic or recurrent.

Unfortunately, while the Sustainable Development Goal, SDG, 6, focuses on safe water and adequate sanitation for all by 2030, over 96 per cent of Nigerians still consume contaminated water, according to the 2016/2017 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, MICS.

The latest MICS report also showed that about one in three households in Nigeria consume contaminated water.

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