​The latest data from WHO and UNICEF on access to clean water, adequate sanitation, and hygiene:

  • 2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water at home.
  • 494 million people worldwide practice open defecation.
  • 2.3 billion people lack access to basic hygiene services, including soap and water at home.
  • In rural settings, only 1 in 3 people have access to basic hygiene services.
  • 42% of the rural population of Zambia relies on unsafe water sources
  • Women and girls are responsible for collecting water in 8 of 10 households, and these responsibilities often lead to school dropout for girls.
  • An estimated 446,000 children under 5 years old die from diarrhea, mostly in low and middle income countries
  • There are 3 million cases of cholera yearly, with nearly 100,000 deaths
  • There are 11 million cases of typhoid fever annually with deaths estimated near 129,000 yearly.
  • Millions suffer from neglected tropical diseases, many of which are water or hygiene related, like trachoma, schistosomiasis, Buruli ulcer, or Guinea worm disease.
  • A baby born in Sub-Saharan Africa is five hundred times more likely to die from diarrhea-related disease than a baby in the developed world
  • Women that have no access to improved water sources in developing countries spend an average of 3 hours collecting water each day.