UNICEF and safe water

Dr. Jassim Taqui

DG Al-Bab Institute for Strategic Studies

Islamabad, July 3, 2021: Billions of people around the world will be unable to access safely managed household drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene services in 2030 unless the rate of progress quadruples, according to a new report from WHO and UNICEF.

 

The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report –  Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000 - 2020 – presents estimates on household access to safely managed drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene services over the past five years, and assesses progress toward achieving the sixth sustainable development goal (SDG) to ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030’. For the first time, the report also presents emerging national data on menstrual health.

 

In 2020, around 1 in 4 people lacked safely managed drinking water in their homes and nearly half the world’s population lacked safely managed sanitation. COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need to ensure everyone can access good hand hygiene. At the onset of the pandemic, 3 in 10 people worldwide could not wash their hands with soap and water within their homes.