Water

WATER AVAILABILITY

• More than 2 billion people worldwide live in water-stressed countries (United Nations, 2018).

• It is estimated that 4 billion people live in areas that experience severe physical water scarcity for at least one month a year (Mekonnen; Hoekstra, 2016).

• About 1.6 billion people face "economic" water scarcity, meaning that while water may be physically available, there is no infrastructure necessary for people to access that water (Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, 2007). They face “economic” water scarcity, which means that while water may be physically available, there is no infrastructure necessary for people to access this water (Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, 2007).

WATER DEMAND AND USE

• The 2030 Water Resources Group, 2009, concluded that the world is likely to face a 40% global water deficit by 2030 under a "business-as-usual" scenario.
  
  

WATER QUALIT

• About 80% of all industrial and municipal wastewater is discharged into the environment without any prior treatment, with detrimental effects on human health and ecosystems (WWAP, 2017).

• About 380 billion cubic meters of water can be recovered from the annual volumes of sewage produced. This type of water reuse is expected to reach 470 billion cubic meters by 2030, and 574 billion by 2050 (Qadir et al., 2020).
  
  

 ECONOMIC VALUATION OF ENVIRONMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE

• By 2030, investment in water and sanitation infrastructure is expected to be around $0.9 to 1.5 trillion per year, about 20% of the total requirement for all types of infrastructure investment (OECD, 2017b). About 70% of the total infrastructure investment will be in the global South, with a large share in fast-growing urban areas (GCEC, 2016). In developed countries, large investments will be needed for renovation and upgrading.
  
  

  VALUE OF WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION SERVICES IN HUMAN SETTLEMENTS 

• In 2017, 5.3 billion people (71% of the world population) used some form of safely managed drinking water service - situated on-site, available when needed, and free of contamination.

• 3.4 billion people (or 45% of the world's population) used safely managed sanitation services (WHO/UNICEF, 2019a).

• Each year, it is estimated that approximately 829,000 people die from diarrhea as a result of water consumption, sanitation, and inadequate hand hygiene. These causes account for 60% of all diarrhea-related deaths worldwide, including nearly 300,000 children under the age of 5, which is 5.3% of all deaths in this age group (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2019).

• Poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, as well as water unfit for consumption, cause diarrheal diseases and environmental enteropathies, which inhibit nutrient absorption, resulting in malnutrition (Teague et al., 2014). Approximately 50% of all malnutrition cases are associated with chronic diarrhea or intestinal worm infections, as a direct result of inadequate water use, sanitation, and hygiene (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2008).

• An estimated 45% of all deaths of children under 5 years of age occur due to malnutrition (United Nations, 2018); the economic cost of this malnutrition is estimated to be up to $2.1 trillion (FAO, 2013a).

• Piped water for better quality facilities and its continuous availability reduced the risk of diarrhea by 75% compared to a baseline scenario with untreated drinking water, worldwide. Sanitation intervention actions reduced diarrhea risk by 25%, with evidence of greater reductions when high sanitation coverage is achieved, while interventions related to handwashing with soap reduced these risks by 30% compared to a scenario without intervention (Wolf et al., 2018).

• Hand hygiene is extremely important to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (WHO, 2020a). Worldwide, more than 3 billion people and two in five healthcare facilities do not have adequate access to basic hand hygiene facilities (WHO; UNICEF, 2019b).

• Globally, 11% of maternal deaths, mainly in low- and middle-income countries, are caused by infections related to unhygienic conditions during labor and birth, at home or in hospital facilities, and to poor hygiene in the first six weeks after birth (WHO; UNICEF, 2019b). Each year, infections associated with births performed without hygienic conditions can account for more than 1 million deaths (WHO; UNICEF, 2019b).

• WHO and UNICEF showed that in the year of the survey, 69% of students had access to safe drinking water (based on data from 92 countries), 66% to sanitation (in 101 countries), and 53% to hygiene (in 81 countries) (WHO; UNICEF, 2018). This equates to 570 million children without safe drinking water in schools, 620 million without sanitation, and 900 million without hygiene. UNDP reported that more than 443 million school days are lost due to water-related diseases (UNDP, 2006).

• About 230 million people, mainly women and girls, spend more than 30 minutes per trip collecting water from sources outside their homes (WHO; UNICEF, 2017a).

• It is estimated that at least $6.5 billion is lost each year in working days due to lack of access to sanitation (Hutton et al., 2012a). In addition, nearly 400,000 work-related deaths occur each year due to communicable diseases, which have poor quality water consumption as the main causative factor, as well as poor sanitation and hygiene (WWAP, 2016).
  
  
  

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

• Latin America and the Caribbean have an average amount of water per inhabitant of about 28,000 cubic meters per year, which is more than four times the world average of 6,000 m³/inhabitant/year (FAO, 2016).

• The average proportion of wastewater that is safely treated is just under 40%. About a quarter of river stretches in the region are affected by severe pathogen contamination. The main source of such pollution is domestic sewage (UNEP, 2016).

 
 Source: United Nations World Water Development Report 2021: The Value of Water - Sources and Data