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Water services for health

Freshwater ecosystems

Freshwater is essential to maintain human health. It is also essential for maintaining many of the ecosystems which provide our food and other essential goods and services. Of all the water available on Earth, about 2.5% is fresh, and a good part is inaccessible to us.

Threats to freshwater resources mean threats to human health

The availability of this small fraction of freshwater found in rivers, lakes and underground is increasingly threatened by landuse, deforestation, climate change and increased consumption of freshwater by growing populations and industry. Additionally, the quality of this water is threatened by increasing pollution, particularly in urban areas and in relation to intensified agriculture. By protecting freshwater ecosystems we are also protecting our health.

Over 1 billion people lack access to safe water supplies, while 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. Lack of sanitation leads to widespread microbial contamination of drinking water.

Water-associated infectious diseases claim up to 3.2 million lives each year, approximately 6% of all deaths globally. The burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene totals 1.8 million deaths and the loss of greater than 75 million healthy life years. Each person needs 20 to 50 liters of water free of harmful chemical and microbial contaminants each day for drinking and hygiene. It is well established that investments in safe drinking water and improved sanitation show a close correspondence with improvement in human health and economic productivity. There remain substantial challenges to providing this basic service to large segments of the human population.

Protecting water to protect health

• UN Water
  UN Water is a coordination mechanism composed of representatives of 26 United Nations organizations working on all aspects of freshwater and sanitation.

• Ramsar Convention
  Ramsar Convention is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

Health and water resources

• WHO's Water, Sanitation and Health website
• Water for health - taking charge (2001)
• Vision 2030: The resilience of water supply and sanitation in the face of climate change (2010)
  The WHO/DFID Vision 2030 study aims to increase our understanding of how anticipated climate change may affect drinking-water and sanitation systems and what can be done to optimize resilience of infrastructure and services.
• UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS)
• GEO4: Chapter 4 Water (2007) [pdf 1.87Mb]
  Reviews the pressures causing changes in the state of the Earth’s water environment in the context of global and regional drivers. It describes the state-and-trends in changes in the water environment, including its ecosystems and their fish stocks, emphasizing the last 20 years, and the impacts of changes on the environment and human well-being at local to global scales.
• World Water Development Report: Water in a Changing World (WWDR-3) (2009)
  The WWDR is a joint effort of the 26 UN agencies and entities which make up UN-Water, working in partnership with governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders.
• World Water Development Report (WWDR-2) CHAPTER 6: Protecting and Promoting Human Health [pdf 892kb]
  WHO & UNICEF present how the state of human health is inextricably linked to a range of water-related conditions: safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, minimized burden of water-related disease and healthy freshwater ecosystems.