Access to safe water and sanitation is essential to human health, environmental sustainability and economic prosperity, which is why it belongs on the list of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Health and Safety
A 2017 report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated that 96 percent of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean had access to at least basic water services in 2015, but only 65 percent had “safely managed” services. (That refers to drinking water that’s located on the premises, available when needed and free from contamination.)
The same report found that 86 percent of people in the region had at least basic sanitation services, but only 23 percent had access to “safely managed” services. (That refers to improved sanitation facilities in which waste is safely disposed of on-site or transported by sewer lines or other means and treated off-site.)
All this adds up to hundreds of millions of people being underserved. Even in places that already have piped-in drinking water, problems related to pressure, continuity of service and safety often impinge on quality.
Deficient water and sanitation services have the biggest impact on people who are poor and vulnerable. Women tend to feel a disproportionate impact, since they typically oversee the household, and for girls, the lack of safe, private hygiene facilities at school can stand in the way of an education. The lack of proper sanitation also threatens biodiversity and the safety of water sources for human consumption or agricultural use.
Climate change is also expected to have an increasingly negative impact on water security. Droughts and changing rainfall patterns can lead to salinization of aquifers and unreliability of supply, while stronger storms can damage physical infrastructure.
Comprehensive solutions are needed to take these types of environmental and social aspects into account.