General Overview

-          785 million people worldwide lack access to basic drinking water services. Among them, 144 million still collect drinking water directly from rivers, lakes and other surface water sources (UNICEF, 2019).

-          2 billion people worldwide lack access to a basic sanitation (toilet) service. Among them, 673 million people still practice open defecation, and a majority are in Southern Asia (UNICEF, 2019).

-          Some 297,000 children – more than 800 every day – under five die annually from diarrheal diseases due to poor sanitation, poor hygiene, or unsafe drinking water (WHO, 2019).

-          Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 80% of households without access to water on-premises (United Nations, nd).

-          2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries, of which 733 million live in high and critically water-stressed countries. (UN-Water 2021)

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Status Quo Nationally

-          The water and sanitation-related targets in SDG-6 are inherent in the country’s periodic development plans and guided by the Nepal WASH Sector Development Plan (SDP) 2016-2030 (WSCC, 2019).

-          Building on the success of the Millennium Development Goals, Nepal is committed to pursuing and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. It has set specific targets in SDG 6 that include basic water supply coverage to 99% households, piped water supply and improved sanitation to 90% of households along with total elimination of open defecation by 2030 (NPC, 2018).

-          Nepal is endowed with abundant water resources from an availability point of view (WECS, 2011). Despite occupying less than 0.04% of the world’s total land area, it possesses 2.7% of the available freshwater on earth (ADBI, 2019). However, the country’s harsh terrain makes access to water supply difficult for many segments of the population.

-          Of the supplied water, 34% is reported to be safe for drinking, and a meager 15% meet the national water quality standards (WHO/UNICEF, 2019).

-          The functional status of existing water schemes remains poor. Only 25% of the country’s water schemes are reported to be fully functioning, while 36% require minor repairs, and 39% need major repair, rehabilitation, or reconstruction (UNICEF, 2016).

-          Disparity in water supply can be observed among the seven Provinces of the country. It is lowest for Karnali Province (70.45%) while the highest for Bagmati Province (91.01%) (Budhathoki, 2019).

-          Water quality remains a priority concern given the vulnerability of existing systems to contamination and inadequate water treatment practices. 71% of all water sources and 91% of those used by the most deprived quintile are contaminated with E. Coli (Escherichia coli) bacteria – a major cause of diarrhea (UNICEF, 2016).

-          Arsenic (As) and heavy metal contamination of groundwater have assumed alarming proportions in the southern plains of the country (Shrestha, 2017).

-          Nationally, 7% of households spent 30 minutes or longer collecting water. However, the regional disparity remains high. For instance, some 30% of households in the mid-western hills and mountains, 29% in the far-western hills and 19% in the Far Western mountains spend more than 30 minutes collecting water (UNICEF, 2016).

-          In addition to losing productive opportunities and forgoing education to the routine task of water collection, women and children suffer greatly from waterborne diseases and the high cost of health care. Children under five are affected the most, with an estimated 3,500 children in the country dying annually from waterborne diseases (Aryal, 2012). 

-          Although water and sanitation coverage has been improving in schools, critical bottlenecks remain, particularly as they relate to girls and children with disabilities. 15% of community schools lack separate toilets for boys and girls, and MHM facilities for girls (UNICEF, 2016).

-          The cost per person served with improved sanitation and hygiene services in Nepal ranges from US$ 8 – 10 (OPM, 2016).

-          The annual government expenditure on WASH is around 3% of the national budget, with a funding gap of NRS 30 billion (approx. US$ 280 million) to meet the current needs (WaterAid Nepal, 2018).

-          Achievements:

Þ    88% of the country’s population now has access to basic drinking water services and about 20% have access to medium and high-level services (NPC, 2018).

Þ    The coverage for urban water supply now stands at 96% (UNICEF, 2016).

Þ    49.5% of households have access to piped water supply (MWSS, 2016).

Þ    Since the inception of the National Sanitation and Hygiene Master Plan 2011, sanitation coverage accelerated by an average of 7% per annum (compared with an average of 4% per annum over the previous decade) (WSCC, 2019).

Þ    78% of the country’s schools have water supply facilities, and 82% have a toilet (UNICEF, 2016).

Þ    Hovering between 2% and 6% in the 1980s and 1990s, the percentage of people with access to basic sanitation accelerated to over 99% by mid-2019. On 30 September 2019, the Government of Nepal declared the country ‘open defecation free’ (ODF) and is rapidly scaling-up access to safely managed sanitation services as the next priority (WSCC, 2019).

Þ    The involvement of users in the process of planning and implementation significantly increased from 6% (1990) to 87.3% (2016) in sanitation and 46% (1990) to 87% (2016) in the water supply (MWSS, 2016).

Status Quo Globally

-          Approximately 50 liters of water per person per day is needed to ensure that most basic needs are met while keeping public health risks at a low level (WHO, 2017).

-          785 million people worldwide lack access to basic drinking water services. Among them, 144 million still collect drinking water directly from rivers, lakes and other surface water sources (UNICEF, 2019).

-          Globally, at least 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with feces (WHO, 2019).

-          2 billion people worldwide lack access to a basic sanitation (toilet) service. Among them, 673 million people still practice open defecation, and a majority are in Southern Asia (UNICEF, 2019).

-          1.7 billion people don't have a decent toilet of their own. (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Report 2021)

-          771 million people don’t have clean water close to home. (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Report 2021)

-          1 in 4 persons worldwide does not have access to a handwashing facility with soap and water on-premises and only 26% of potential fecal contacts are followed by handwashing with soap (Wolf et al., 2018).

-          In low- and middle-income countries, 50% of health care facilities (HCFs) lack piped water, 33% lack improved sanitation, 39% lack handwashing soap, and 39% lack adequate infectious waste disposal (USAID, 2018).

-          207 million people worldwide spent over 30 minutes per round trip to collect water from an improved source (WHO/UNICEF, 2019).

-          Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 80% of households without access to water on-premises (United Nations, nd).

-          In the Least Developed Countries, 27% of the population has basic handwashing facilities with soap and water, while 26% have handwashing facilities lacking soap or water. The remaining 47% have no facility for handwashing (WHO/UNICEF, 2019).

-          Funding for WASH must triple to US$114 billion each year to meet SDG Goal 6 targets for water, sanitation and hygiene (WHO, 2017).

Water Related Diseases

-          Every year, there are nearly 1.7 billion cases of diarrheal disease, and up to 432, 000 diarrheal deaths occur from poor sanitation. It is also linked to the transmission of other diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid, hepatitis A and few other neglected tropical diseases including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. Poor sanitation also contributes to malnutrition (WHO, 2019).

-          Some 297,000 children – more than 800 every day – under five die annually from diarrheal diseases due to poor sanitation, poor hygiene, or unsafe drinking water (WHO, 2019).

-          Globally, diarrhea, pneumonia, sepsis, and other WASH-related infections account for an estimated 33% of deaths among children under the age of five (Cronk, 2018).

-          Trachoma is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness and results from poor hygiene and sanitation. Approximately 142 million people live in trachoma endemic areas with a high risk of trachoma blindness and nearly 1.9 million people are visually impaired or irreversibly blind as a result of trachoma (WHO, 2020).

-          Improved water sources reduce diarrhea morbidity by 21%; improved sanitation reduces diarrhea morbidity by 37.5%; and the simple act of handwashing at critical times can reduce the number of diarrhea cases by as much as 35% (UNDP, 2005).

-          Universal access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene would prevent at least 9.1% of the global disease burden and 6.3% of all deaths (WHO, 2008).

-          80 percent of diseases in developing countries are water-related.

-          443 million school days are lost each year as a result of water-related illnesses. And at any given time, about half of all people in developing countries are suffering from health effects related to poor water or sanitation. 35 percent of all productivity (work, school, etc.) is lost because of people becoming ill from water-related illnesses. (United Nation Development Programme; http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home.html)

-          60 percent of infant mortality is linked to infectious and parasitic diseases, most of which are water-related.

-          Diarrheal diseases have killed more children in the past ten years than all those killed by armed conflict since World War II.

-          Diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old. It is both preventable and treatable.

-          Each year diarrhea kills around 525 000 children under five.

-          Globally, there are nearly 1.7 billion cases of childhood diarrheal disease every year.

-          Diarrhea is a leading cause of malnutrition in children under five years old.

Social Inequality

-          Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 80% of households without access to water on-premises (United Nations, nd).

-          Women and children are the most affected — children because they’re more vulnerable to diseases caused by dirty water and women and girls because they often bear the burden of carrying water for their families for an estimated 200 million hours each day.

-          Girls who attend school until adolescence are more likely to drop out when they start menstruating unless their school has clean water, latrines, sanitary supplies, and support for hygiene behavior change. Helping young women to manage menstrual health is not only about providing appropriate facilities, but also includes addressing social norms.

-          At childbirth, the lack of clean water, sanitation facilities, and proper hygiene contribute to high rates of disease and death among mothers and newborns in the developing world.

-          Plus, an estimated 500 million women and girls lack the basic facilities needed for menstrual hygiene management at school. This means many girls do not attend while menstruating, deepening the educational divide.

-          The water crisis disproportionately affects women. In 80% of households without safe water, women and girls are responsible for gathering the day’s water. This takes women and girls away from activities like working and going to school, trapping them in a cycle of poverty.

-          And when it comes to giving birth, a lack of safe water in health centers results in up to eight percent of all maternal deaths globally. For women who don’t die, infections make them and their infants dangerously sick.

Economic Impact

-          Loss of productivity to water and sanitation-related diseases costs developing countries in average 5% of their GDP (WHO, 2012).

-          The World Bank estimated that as much as 6.4% of India’s GDP is lost to adverse economic impacts and costs of inadequate sanitation (United Nations, 2016).

-          Water and sanitation interventions are cost-effective across all world regions. These interventions demonstrate to produce economic benefits ranging from US$ 5 to US$ 46 per US$ 1 invested (Hutton et al., 2007).

-           In urban areas, for every $1 invested in basic drinking water, more than $3 is returned in saved medical costs and increased productivity. For every $1 invested in basic sanitation, the return is $2.5. In rural areas, the return on investment is even higher: with every $1 invested in basic drinking water, nearly $7 is returned in saved medical costs and increased productivity. And, in the case of basic sanitation in rural areas, every $1 return on average $5 in saved medical costs and increased productivity (Hutton et al., 2015).

-          Productive time spent walking for water or looking for a place to use the bathroom accounts for billions of hours a year lost in economic opportunity.

-          When families aren’t spending their income on treating waterborne illnesses or their time walking for water, they can invest in things like running a business and education.

-          For every $1 invested in safe water and sanitation, a yield of $5 to $28 USD is returned in increased economic activity and reduced health care costs. Access to safe water stimulates the economy for the long term.

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Water Accessibility

-          Over 68 percent of the fresh water on Earth is found in icecaps and glaciers, and just over 30 percent is found in ground water. Only about 0.3 percent of our fresh water is found in the surface water of lakes, rivers, and swamps. Of all the water on Earth, more than 99 percent of Earth's water is unusable by humans.

Water Use

-          72% of all water withdrawals are used by agriculture, 16% by municipalities for households and services, and 12% by industries. (UN-Water 2021)

-          A person can live for up to one month without food, but only about one week without water. (EPA Water Trivia Facts; (https://www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/water_trivia_facts.html)

-          66 percent of the human body is water. (EPA Water Trivia Facts; (https://www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/water_trivia_facts.html)

-          75 percent of the human brain is water. (EPA Water Facts of Life; (https://www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/waterfactsoflife.html)

-          A living tree is 75 percent water. (EPA Water Facts of Life; https://www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/waterfactsoflife.html)

-          One drop of oil can make up to 25 litres of water unfit for drinking. (Government of Canada: Water and the environment; https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/water-overview.html

-          It takes 215,000 litres of water to produce one tonne of steel.

-          To manufacture one complete car, including tires, 147,972 litres of water are used. (EPA Water Trivia Facts; https://www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/water_trivia_facts.html)

-          To produce one kilogram of paper, approximately 300 litres of water are required.

Water Waste Management

-          80% of wastewater goes to waterways without adequate treatment. (UNO, 2022)

-          Up to 90 percent of all wastewater in developing countries is discharged directly into rivers and streams, without any treatment.

Destruction of Water Ecosystems

-          700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030. (Global Water Institute, 2013)

-          The world has lost 70% of its wetlands over the last century.

-          Water scarcity already affects every continent. Water use has been growing globally at more than twice the rate of population increase since 1900, and an increasing number of regions are reaching the limit at which water services can be sustainably delivered, especially in arid regions.

-          When a territory withdraws 25% or more of its renewable freshwater resources it is said to be ‘water-stressed’. Five out of 11 regions have water stress values above 25%, including two regions with high water stress and one with extreme water stress. (UN-Water 2021)

-          2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries, of which 733 million live in high and critically water-stressed countries. (UN-Water 2021)

-          3.2 billion people live in agricultural areas with high to very high water shortages or scarcity, of whom 1.2 billion people – roughly one-sixth of the world’s population – live in severely water-constrained agricultural areas. (FAO, 2020)

-          Today, 1.42 billion people – including 450 million children – live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability. (UNICEF, 2021)

-          About 4 billion people, representing nearly two-thirds of the global population, experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2016)

-          Nearly half the global population are already living in potential water scarce areas at least one month per year and this could increase to some 4.8–5.7 billion in 2050. About 73% of the affected people live in Asia (69% by 2050) (Burek et al., 2016).

-          Around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world’s population, live in areas of scarcity. Another 1.6 billion people, or almost one quarter of the world’s population, face economic water shortage (where countries lack the ne- cessary infrastructure to take water from rivers and aquifers). (FAO, 2007)

-          By 2025, 1.8 billion people are expected to be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under water stress conditions. (UNESCO, 2012)

-          A third of the world’s biggest groundwater systems are already in distress (Richey et al., 2015).