Ahead of World Water Week, WHO/UNICEF Data Exposes Stagnating Progress and Glaring Inequalities, Leaving Billions Behind
GENEVA/NEW YORK, 26 August 2025 – Despite a decade of global efforts, billions of people remain without access to essential water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, perpetuating cycles of disease and profound social exclusion, according to a landmark United Nations report released today.
This latest report, Progress on Household Drinking Water and Sanitation 2000–2024: Special Focus on Inequalities, from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), reveals that the world is drastically off-track in its promise to achieve universal access by 2030.
JMP has been tracking global progress for 35 years. The report is set to be launched during World Water Week (24-28 August 2025).
The most vulnerable populations—including those in low-income countries, conflict zones, rural communities, and minority ethnic and indigenous groups—are being left farthest behind.
“Water, sanitation and hygiene are not privileges, they are basic human rights,” said Dr. Ruediger Krech, Director a.i. of Environment, Climate Change and Health at the World Health Organisation.
“We must accelerate action, especially for the most marginalised communities, if we are to keep our promise to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Some of the key findings from the report show data which paint a stark picture of six global disparities: “One in four people globally(2.1 billion), lack safely managed drinking water.”
Furthermore, a staggering 106 million people are forced to drink directly from untreated surface water sources like rivers and lakes.
Similarly, about 3.4 billion people lack safely managed sanitation services, with 354 million still practising open defecation due to a complete absence of toilets.
Lack of basic hygiene services is a problem for 1.7 billion people, including 611 million who have no access to a handwashing facility whatsoever.
The report further indicates that people in the world’s least developed countries are more than twice as likely to lack basic water and sanitation, and more than three times as likely to lack basic hygiene.
Notably, in fragile contexts, coverage of safely managed drinking water is a dramatic 38 percentage points lower than in stable countries.
Rural-Urban Divide
While rural areas have seen improvements, a significant gap with urban areas persists.
Between 2015 and 2024, safely managed drinking water coverage in rural regions rose from 50 percent to 60 percent, and basic hygiene coverage jumped from 52 percent to 71 percent.
In contrast, progress in urban areas has largely stagnated, signalling new challenges in rapidly growing cities.
Women-Girls Burden
The report includes expanded data on menstrual health, revealing that challenges persist across all income levels.
In many countries, while most women and adolescent girls have access to menstrual materials and a private place to change, a significant number lack sufficient materials to manage their menstruation with dignity.
Furthermore, adolescent girls (15-19) are more likely than adult women to miss school, work, or social activities during their periods.
The task of collecting water also falls overwhelmingly on women and girls, with millions in sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southern Asia spending over 30 minutes per day on this chore.
These are times that could be spent on education, work, or rest.
“When children lack access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, their health, education, and futures are put at risk,” said Cecilia Scharp, UNICEF Director of WASH as she added that: “These inequalities are especially stark for girls… At the current pace, the promise of safe water and sanitation for every child is slipping further from reach.
Accelerated Action
With just five years remaining to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the report concludes that achieving targets for ending open defecation and universal access to basic services will require a massive acceleration of efforts.
“The higher goal of universally safe managed services appears increasingly out of reach without an immediate and profound shift in strategy and investment.”
