Every child deserves clean water.

There’s nothing more essential to life on Earth than water. Yet, from Cape Town to Flint, Michigan, and from rural, sub-Saharan Africa to Asia’s teeming megacities, there’s a global water crisis.

People are struggling to access the quantity and quality of water they need for drinking, cooking, bathing, handwashing, and growing their food.

Amazing progress has been made in making clean drinking water accessible to 2.6 billion people in developing countries from 1990 to 2015. Yet there are still many opportunities to multiply the benefits of clean water through improved sanitation and hygiene education.

The United Nations recognizes the importance of addressing the global water crisis each year on World Water Day, March 22.

Globally, 844 million people lack access to clean water. Without clean, easily accessible water, families and communities are locked in poverty for generations. Children drop out of school and parents struggle to make a living.

Women and children are worst affected — children because they are more vulnerable to diseases of dirty water and women and girls because they often bear the burden of carrying water for their families for an estimated 200 million hours each day.

Access to clean water changes everything; it’s a stepping-stone to development. When ...

https://www.worldvision.org/clean-water-news-stories/global-water-crisis-facts