Access to safe, clean water is a fundamental human right, yet billions of people around the world still lack it. As climate change accelerates and conflicts escalate, the need for resilient water systems has never been more urgent. UNICEF has long been at the forefront of this work responding to emergencies, strengthening infrastructure, and ensuring that communities have the tools they need to safeguard their futures.
In this special Q&A, UNICEF USA shares insights into the challenges behind the global water crisis, the innovative solutions being deployed, and the impact donor support makes for children, families, and communities around the world.
The Basics
To start, we asked UNICEF USA about the biggest drivers of global water insecurity and how these dynamics impact children and communities.
How many people in the world lack access to clean water?
The latest data show that 2.1 billion people globally still lack access to safe drinking water at home that is from an improved source, available when needed and free from contaminants. This includes nearly 700 million people who do not have access to even a basic water service (which is from an improved source where collection time is not more than 30 minutes for a roundtrip including queuing).
Why do so many communities still lack access to clean water?
There are many reasons that range from geography to politics and beyond. The main issue is the lack of sustained public/government investment in ensuring access to safe water, which is compounded by the impacts of climate change (floods, droughts, etc.).
What are the health impacts of not having clean water?
Without safe water, water-borne diseases like cholera can spread and be deadly. Children under 5 years of age are the most vulnerable to these diseases, including diarrhea, which is one of the main causes of under-5 mortality and can be caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation and hygiene. When sick, children cannot go to school, impacting their education — or, if they have to travel long distances to collect safe water for their families, they could face safety issues and/or miss out on school. Safe water is especially critical for health facilities, particularly around the time of birth and for infection prevention and control.
What kinds of water solutions are most effective?
The best water solutions are context specific. For example, an area where boreholes — which are like wells, but drilled to get at water that is much deeper underground and can be infiltrated by sea water — will have different needs than an area where groundwater is close to the surface without any potential for saline intrusion. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
How does UNICEF ensure water sources remain sustainable?
UNICEF does extensive hydrological and geological surveys prior to drilling to ensure greater success rates and to ensure the water sources can meet demand long-term. In some scenarios, existing water sources can “belong” to more than one country, region, or people, and there can be conflict over the resource/the fresh water (which could be in short supply). UNICEF works with all parties to equitably manage access to the water/resource — known as transboundary cooperation.
Understanding the Need
UNICEF USA emphasized that the gravity of the water crisis is often misunderstood.
Are there common misconceptions about the global water crisis you find important to address?
It is important to emphasize the deadly nature of the water crisis for children, especially young children under 5. Every day, 1,000 children under 5 die from diseases that are due to a lack of appropriate safe water and sanitation (WASH) services. And in protracted conflicts, children under 5 are more than 20 times more likely to die from diarrheal disease linked to unsafe WASH practices than violence in conflict.
What consideration about safe water access might be overlooked?
Girls and women carry the greatest burden of unpaid water collection, sanitation upkeep, and household hygiene… increasing exposure to disease, harassment, violence, and psychological stress.
How does UNICEF help to address safe water and sanitation for girls and women?
UNICEF helps to provide education on and products for menstrual hygiene management, equipping schools with private changing rooms, single-sex bathrooms and handwashing stations, and more. Accessible WASH programs prevent girls from missing school and falling into child labor, adolescent pregnancy, and forced marriage.
Approach & Implementation
UNICEF implements diverse solutions tailored to local environments and long-term sustainability.
What types of water solutions are you implementing, and why these approaches?
UNICEF implements many water solutions to help make communities more resilient to climate change and the stress it puts on water supply. Each context requires analysis of the proper approach. For example:
- Drilling boreholes reaches potable water that is too deep to reach through a hand-dug well. This water requires pumping to reach the surface. Solar powered water systems use these pumps to fill elevated tanks, storing water for use in times of drought.
- Managed aquifer recharge is an innovative, low-cost way of conserving water by slowing and storing floodwater during rainy seasons through the use of terraces, dams, ponds, and wells.
- Sand dams help make water supplies more climate resilient — these are concrete embankments or walls built across seasonal streams. During the rainy season, the wall harvests sand, of which 20-40% is water that is later harvested.
How do you prioritize which communities receive support?
UNICEF creates 4-year development plans with host governments called Country Program Documents (CPD) — these outline shared government-UNICEF priorities that can be achieved during the plan’s timeline. Regions and communities that are served are determined during the process of developing the CPD.
Measurement & Transparency
How do you measure the impact of your water projects?
UNICEF’s ultimate goal is to help reach Sustainable Goal 6, clean water and sanitation for all. UNICEF has sector-specific indicators that it tracks through multiple means, including Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and project reporting.
Innovation & Future Vision
What excites you most about the future of your clean water work?|
UNICEF is using exciting innovations in our work. For example, using satellites to help find deep sources of groundwater in Ethiopia and Madagascar… If satellites can identify deep sources of groundwater that have not been infiltrated by sea water and that are therefore safe to drink, millions of people in the South of Madagascar will have access to a local source of safe water for the first time.
Funding & Donor Impact
How does my donation make a measurable difference?
By supporting UNICEF’s water, sanitation, and hygiene program, you are contributing to bringing safe water to children and their communities in more than 100 countries, making a difference in the lives, health, education, and protection of children globally. $1 could provide two bars of soap. $35 could provide one carton of 10,000 water purification tablets. $100 could provide 40 cholera testing kits.
The price points above are illustrative of the impact that could be achieved.
How does donor support directly translate into clean water access on the ground?
Donor support to UNICEF’s water, sanitation, and hygiene program supports multiple programs and projects. One example is The Gaza Strip. UNICEF’s response in Gaza benefited the entire population, totaling nearly 2.3 million people. UNICEF provided over 6 million liters of fuel to operate water facilities, treatment plants, and sewage pumping stations.
Are there cost considerations or challenges you wish donors understood more clearly?
UNICEF works in some of the most challenging environments, including in areas experiencing active conflict, which can drive up costs and make implementation difficult at times. Access to children and communities can be difficult when armed groups close roads or otherwise deny access to populations, or when climate-related challenges result in barriers like flooded roadways and make access impossible.
The Power of Unrestricted Giving: Why It Matters
As UNICEF continues its work to expand access to safe water, respond to emergencies, innovate with new technologies, and support the world’s most vulnerable children, flexible, unrestricted funding plays a crucial role.
Unrestricted giving allows UNICEF to:
- Respond rapidly when crises strike
- Allocate resources where needs are most urgent
- Scale programs that are proven to work
- Invest in long-term, systemic solutions
- Strengthen resilience across entire communities
Because the challenges faced by children evolve quickly, from climate disasters to conflict to disease outbreaks, unrestricted giving is one of the most impactful ways donors can support UNICEF’s holistic, responsive work.
Your donation to UNICEF USA ensures that lifesaving water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions reach children and families who need it most. Consider an unrestricted gift through your workplace today.