1 in 4 People Worldwide Still Lack Access to Safe Drinking Water

World Water Week is the leading global conference on water, held every year at the end of August in Stockholm and organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). This year’s edition, from 24 to 28 August 2025, carried the slogan “Water for Climate Action”, highlighting the role of water in both mitigating and adapting to climate change, protecting biodiversity, and ensuring the inclusion of vulnerable communities.

The goal of the conference is to find joint solutions to shared global water challenges. Topics cover a wide spectrum — from food security and public health to agriculture, technology, biodiversity, and the climate crisis.

Each year, the event emphasizes the alarming state of global water resources, especially safe drinking water, bringing this issue to the forefront of climate discourse. The discussions consistently stress the urgency of a coordinated, collective response, as water scarcity and climate change are already reshaping lives worldwide — whether we recognize it or not.

Awareness of these issues often depends on where one happens to live.
In many parts of the world, drinking tap water without concern is becoming increasingly rare. At the same time, consumer habits and distrust of water quality drive rising demand for bottled water, fueling the constant growth of packaging waste — a problem rooted not in choice, but in inequality and poor distribution of safe water.

Key Takeaways from the 2025 Conference

• Water at the core of climate action – water is a crucial tool in combating climate change, both through emission reduction and by building societal resilience.

• Mitigation and adaptation – sustainable water management and ecosystem protection are essential for strengthening climate resilience.

• Climate justice – vulnerable and marginalized communities must be actively included in decision-making and implementation.

• Aligning policy and practice – global climate policies need to translate into concrete action on the ground.

• New financing models – a “regenerative approach” was introduced, combining blended finance, impact investing, and innovative support mechanisms.

• Inspirational examples – India’s Namami Gange (Clean Ganga Mission) was highlighted as a successful and innovative model of river ecosystem management.

World Water Week 2025 reaffirmed that water lies at the very heart of climate policy and practice — and that without smart management of water resources, there can be no effective fight against climate change.

Why the climate crisis is a water crisis?

Source: https://www.instagram.com/siwi_worldwaterweek/

A Quarter of the World Still Lacks Safe Drinking Water

While the global community debates solutions for climate change and resource protection, a new WHO and UNICEF report revealed staggering figures: one in four people worldwide — around 2.1 billion — still lacks access to safe drinking water.

Additional findings from the report include:

• Over 100 million people still drink directly from rivers and lakes, while nearly 302 million rely on unsafe or inadequate sources.

• 1.7 billion people lack even basic hygiene facilities, including 611 million who have no access to soap and water for handwashing.

• 3.4 billion people lack safe sanitation, and 354 million still practice open defecation.

• In conflict-affected regions, access to safe water is 38 percentage points lower than in stable countries.

• Rural areas show modest progress, while urban areas have largely stagnated.

• Between 2015 and 2024, 961 million people gained access to safe drinking water, raising global coverage to 74 percent.

Sources:
https://worldwaterweek.org/ 
https://www.instagram.com/siwi_worldwaterweek/ 
https://www.who.int/news/item/26-08-2025-1-in-4-people-globally-still-lack-access-to-safe-drinking-water---who--unicef

Photographes by:
Header: Gyan Shahane - Unsplash
Jeff Ackley on Unsplash
Piotr from Pixabay