Despite progress since 2000, stark inequities remain in global access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), according to the latest WHO–UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report. As of 2024, 2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, including 106 million reliant on untreated surface sources. Another 3.4 billion lack safely managed sanitation, and 1.7 billion have no basic hygiene facilities, with 611 million entirely without hygiene access.
The report highlights deep disparities: people in least developed countries are twice as likely to lack basic water and sanitation, and three times as likely to lack hygiene, compared to global averages. Fragile and conflict-affected states show coverage gaps of nearly 40 percentage points. Unless targeted interventions close these gaps, achieving SDG 6 by 2030 is increasingly out of reach.
Follow the full report here:
https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/progress-on-household-drinking-water--sanitation-and-hygiene-2000-2024--special-focus-on-inequalities
