Global Water Crisis: 2.1 Billion Lack Safe Drinking Water The global water crisis remains a severe, long-running humanitarian and development emergency. The latest WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme update says **2.1 billion people** still lack **safely managed drinking water**, **3.4 billion** lack **safely managed sanitation**, and **1.7 billion** lack **basic hygiene services** as of 2024. UNICEF’s data also shows that in 2022, **2.2 billion** people lacked safely managed drinking-water services, including **1.5 billion** with only basic services and **115 million** still collecting drinking water directly from rivers, lakes, or other surface water sources.
The crisis is unevenly distributed and is worst in poorer, fragile, and water-stressed settings. WHO says people in least developed countries are more than twice as likely to lack basic drinking water and sanitation services, and more than three times as likely to lack basic hygiene services; in fragile contexts, safely managed drinking-water coverage is **38 percentage points lower** than in other countries. The World Bank says people with low access to drinking water services are concentrated in **Sub-Saharan Africa**. The United Nations warns that water scarcity affects every continent, and recent UN reporting continues to link the problem to climate change, drought, weak infrastructure, and unequal access to investment.
