Water

785 million people around the world still don’t have access to water close to home. That’s 1 in 10 people. 

Without clean water, people are denied access to opportunities that should be open to everyone, everywhere. 

Whole communities are held back while others thrive, simply because they don’t have access to clean water.

This is a global water, sanitation and hygiene crisis. In 2015, world leaders committed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Goal 6 focuses on water and sanitation – but some countries are not years, but centuries behind reaching this target.

Watch this video to find out how we can reach Goal 6

The global water crisis stops people from having an equal chance to be healthy, educated and financially secure.

Why don't people just move closer to water (or boil it)? 

Open sources of water usually aren’t safe. They’re often shared with animals, and contaminated with waterborne diseases like cholera.

They're also unreliable, drying up or running out, often because of climate change. A community cannot move every time this happens.

Boiling water doesn’t get rid of particles of dirt and burning a constant supply of fuel can be very difficult, expensive and bad for health and the environment. 

Find out more answers to common questions about our work and why we do it
 

What does WaterAid do to fix this?

We have reached over 27 million people with clean water around the world.

But there are still millions of people who face the dangers of drinking water every day, and the impact of climate change is making things worse. This shouldn’t be normal. But we are determined to keep working until everyone, everywhere has access to clean water.

Let Brian Blessed tell you more...