Global Rundown
- The newest United Nations report on global water, sanitation, and hygiene details gradual yet unequal progress, particularly in rural areas and countries with poor infrastructure.
- Unpermitted pig farms on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula are releasing pollutants into groundwater and springs, a new investigative documentary shows.
- More than half of Europe and the Mediterranean basin are experiencing drought this August, the highest level measured since 2012.
- Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from downstream communities in Pakistan after India released water from overflowing dams.
The Lead
According to a new report from the World Health Organization and UNICEF, one in four people globally — roughly 2.1 billion — lack access to safely managed drinking water.
The report, which places special emphasis on inequality, highlights continued albeit measured gains in achieving universal WASH services by 2030. According to the report, “progress has been uneven and the total number of people still lacking access has decreased more slowly.”
Between 2000 and 2024, the world’s population increased by 2 billion people, and even more people have gained access to safe drinking water (2.2 billion) and sanitation (2.8 billion). Significant progress was made in Laos, Bhutan, Morocco, and Jordan, where the percentage of people with access to safe drinking water increased by more than 15 percentage points since 2015. Generally, progress was much more substantial in urban areas than rural areas.
But many have been left behind. According to the report, 3.4 billion people are still without safe sanitation services, including 1.7 billion people who do not have basic hygiene services at home. This experience is most common in the world’s least developed countries, which are “more than twice as likely as people in other countries to lack basic drinking water and sanitation services, and more than three times as likely to lack basic hygiene.”
In most countries where data is available, drinking water access continues to disproportionately affect women and girls, who are more likely than men and boys to collect water. This trend is especially significant in Africa — notably Malawi, Chad, Central African Republic, and Ethiopia — where retrieving water often takes at least 30 minutes, and sometimes more than two hours, each day.
Last year, of the 287 million people around the world who got by with limited water services, more than half lived in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Context: WASH Within Reach
In Context: USAID Shutdown Leading to Human Calamity
Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue
- With Wildfire-Prevention Work, Flagstaff Seeks to Avoid the Next Devastating Flood — A severe fire in the city’s central watershed could lead to $2.8 billion in damages.
- Make America Polluted Again Starts in Iowa — Without controls, water contamination from Big Ag gets steadily worse.
This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers
90
Percent of industrial-scale farms on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula that lack environmental permits, Yale Environment 360 reports. A new documentary called Slaughter-land documents how these hundreds of facilities, which hold tens of thousands of pigs each, continue to release effluent into surrounding communities and seize Indigenous land. Independent testing has shown elevated levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, fecal coliform, and medicines in groundwater and springs, all of which “have been correlated with an increase in intestinal infections in nearby towns.”
51.3
Percent of Europe and the Mediterranean basin suffering from drought conditions, according to European Drought Observatory measurements taken earlier this month, France24 reports. It is the highest level recorded since data collection began in 2012. September rains are forecast for much of the continent, though scientists warn they will not be strong enough to end the drought.
In Context: Drought stalks Serbia, harming livestock
On the Radar
More than 100,000 people in eastern Pakistan living near the Sutlej River were evacuated from their homes or moved to higher ground this week after India announced it would be releasing water from several overflowing dams, the Associated Press reports. New Delhi had alerted Islamabad of the possible cross-border flooding a day before the evacuation orders were issued, marking the first exchange of diplomatic communication between the two countries in months.
Throughout southeast Asia this summer, monsoon rains have been particularly devastating, with their intensity attributed in part to climate change. Rivers have swelled, muddy slopes have given way to landslides, and widespread flooding has occurred frequently throughout the region.
Notably, India’s flood alert was conveyed through diplomatic channels, and not via the Indus Waters Commission. In April, following the murder of 26 civilians in Kashmir state, India announced it would be suspending its involvement in the Indus Waters Treaty, which was brokered in 1960 and ensures that India allows river water to flow into Pakistan, reaching farmland and powerplants. India attributes the attack to Pakistan, an accusation that Pakistan denies.
Though India’s suspension of the treaty threatened to cut Pakistan’s river access, Deutsche Welle reports this week that the act has remained “theoretical.”
“All available reports indicate India took no concrete action to restrict the water flow into Pakistan.”
Wetlands Watch
Cambridgeshire, UK: A project to turn a quarry into one of the United Kingdom’s largest wetlands has been delayed eight years, BBC reports. After purchasing Needingworth Quarry in Cambridgeshire in 2024, the company Brice Aggregate reviewed the site and “believed it would not be exhausted of sand and gravel until six years after the planning permission ended.” The local county council granted the extension, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which will manage the new wetland, did not object.
The quarry, originally planned to become a wetland habitat in 2030, will now be converted in 2038. Once completed, the wetland will comprise 1,730 acres and feature the country’s largest reedbed.
