Lack of safe water, sanitation and hygiene remains one of the world’s most urgent health issues. Almost one tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources. Ensuring poor people’s access to safe drinking-water and adequate sanitation and encouraging personal, domestic and community hygiene will improve the quality of life of millions of individuals. Better managing water resources to reduce the transmission of vector-borne diseases (such as viral diseases carried by mosquitoes) and to make water bodies safe for recreational and other uses can save many lives and has extensive direct and indirect economic benefits, from the micro-level of households to the macro-perspective of national economies.

• Diarrhoea causes 4% of all deaths and 5% of health loss to disability worldwide. It is most commonly caused by gastrointestinal infections, which kill around 2.2 million people globally each year, mostly children under five in developing countries. 88% of that burden is attributable to unsafe water supply, sanitation and hygiene.

Investment to improve drinking water, sanitation, hygiene, and water resource management systems makes strong economic sense: every dollar invested leads to up to 8 dollars in benefits. 84 billion dollars a year could be regained from the yearly investment of 11.3 billion dollars needed to meet the water and sanitation targets. In addition to the value of saved human lives, other benefits include higher economic productivity, more education, and health-care savings.

Efforts to improve water, sanitation and hygiene interact with each other to boost overall health. Access to sanitation, such as simple latrines in communities, prevents drinking water contamination from human waste and reduces infections. High-tech public health measures are not necessarily the best: frequent handwashing with soap and safe storage of drinking water are high-impact practices.

>> Access to a selection of UN publications on water and health