• Today, more than one out of nine people in the world lack access to safe drinking water, namely 783 million people, and more than two out of five, lack adequate sanitation (2.5 billion people). Every 20 seconds, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation that is 1.5 million preventable deaths each year (estimation for 2012, by UN Water).  Seen over a day, more than 4,500 children die from waterborne diseases. 
  
  

• Dirty water and a lack of basic sanitation are undermining efforts to end extreme poverty and disease in the world's poorest countries. Women and girls in developing countries spend most of their days gathering water for their families, walking 5.6 kilometres on average each day to collect water. Girls often drop out of primary school because their schools lack separate toilets and easy access to safe water.
  
  

• Access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation facilities could transform the lives of millions in the world's poorest countries. Universal access to water and sanitation could prevent thousands of child deaths and free up hours each day for women and children to go to work or school. This is especially true for girls - studies show that girls are 12% more likely to go to school if water is available within a 15 minute walk rather than a one hour's walk.

• In the United Nations World Water Development Report, it is clear that urgent action is needed if we are to avoid a global water crisis. Despite the vital importance of water to all aspects of human life, the sector has been plagued by a chronic lack of political support, poor governance and underinvestment. As a result, hundreds of millions of people around the world remain trapped in poverty and ill health and exposed to the risks of water-related disasters, environmental degradation and even political instability and conflict. Population growth, increasing consumption and climate change are among the factors that threaten to exacerbate these problems, with grave implications for human security and development.
  
  

• Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, remains mired in poverty. Its progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals lags behind that of other regions. The percentage of the population living in absolute poverty is essentially the same as it was 25 years ago. About 340 million Africans lack access to safe drinking water, and almost 500 million lack access to adequate sanitation. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa store only about 4% of their annual renewable flows, compared with 70%-90% in many developed countries, yet water storage is essential to ensure reliable sources of water for irrigation, water supply and hydropower and to provide a buffer for flood management.

"When the well is dry, we know the worth of water" - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)