WATER & SANITATION

A lack of clean water and basic sanitation is responsible for 1.6 million preventable child deaths each year. Millions more children suffer from waterborne illnesses, such as typhoid, worms and diarrhoea.

More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly all of these deaths (99 percent), occur in the developing world.

2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation; 1.1 billion still practice open defecation. Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.  In addition, 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related illness. 

Women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households. This is time not spent working at an income-generating job, caring for family members, or attending school.

The opposite of these dreadful statics is the transformation to individuals and communities through the provision of water, appropriate sanitation and information on correct hygiene.  Entrust works with local partners to provide these to oppressed communities throughout the developing world.

All statistics sourced from United Nations websites, primarily WHO, UNICEF and UNDP.