Over one billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water. In 2015, 844 million people still lacked even a basic level of water sanitation service for drinking purposes, while another 1.3 billion people (17 per cent of the total global population) had to travel up to 30 minutes one-way to access safe drinking water. People without access live predominantly in rural areas, and lack of access to water compounds with other development issues such as lack of access to education and healthcare.

Achieving universal access to basic sanitation and ending the unsafe practice of open defecation will require substantial acceleration of progress in rural areas of Central and Southern Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. While the rates of open defecation have gone down overall, some regions have actually seen an increase since 2000.

More than a quarter of the world’s population live in countries with excess water stress, defined as the ratio of total freshwater withdrawn to total renewable freshwater resources above a threshold of 25 per cent. Northern Africa and Western Asia experience extremely high water stress levels above 60 per cent, which implies a strong probability of future water scarcity. In 2012, 65 per cent of the 130 countries that responded to a survey on integrated water resources management reported that management plans were in place at the national level, however the effectiveness of these plans varied widely.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) for the water sector has been rising steadily, but has remained relatively constant as a proportion of total ODA disbursements, at approximately 5 per cent since 2005. In 2015, ODA disbursements in the water sector totaled about $8.6 billion, which represents an increase of 67 per cent in real terms since 2005. In order to achieve the 2030 targets, more investment into clean water and sanitation is needed.