World Water Day 2016

In 2015, citizens and leaders aligned to adopt an uprecedented new agenda for global development to improve the lives of people around the world. At an historic summit at the United Nations, world leaders officially adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, and committed to actions to deliver on those 17 goals by 2030. 

Goal 6.1 of the new Sustainable Development Goals is to "achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030." There is sufficient fresh, clean water on the planet to achieve this goal. But, due to poverty and poor infrastructure, every year millions of people, most of them children, die from diseases and illnesses—including undernutrition—associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene.

Today, on World Water Day 2016, Action Against Hunger celebrates the progress over the past 20 years to deliver sources of clean drinking water to 2.3 billion people who lacked access. But that progress is insufficient. Today, we still live in a world where:

• 663 million people around the world do not have access to a source of safe, clean water
• 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation services, such as toilets or latrines
• Each day, nearly 1,000 children die due to preventable waterborne diseases 

Read more in: World Water Day 2016