UNDP supports Sri Lanka to provide equitable access to safe and clean water to all

Colombo: Clean water and sanitation are a basic human right. Today, water is under extreme threat from a growing population, increasing demands of agriculture and industry, and the worsening impacts of climate change. As societies balance the demands on water resources, many people’s interests are not being taken into account.

 

Yet in 2017, 2.2 billion people, that is 29% of the world’s population, did not have access to drinking water that was free from contamination and available on premises when needed. 785 million people lacked even basic drinking water services, which include piped water, boreholes or tubewells, protected dug wells, protected springs, and packaged or delivered water.

 

Of those who lacked basic access to water, eight out of ten people lived in rural areas. These statistics are devastating when clean water and sanitation are viewed as being essential to the realization of human rights.

 

Dr. Buddika Hapuarachchi, Team Lead & Policy Specialist of the Climate and Environment Team at UNDP in Sri Lanka concurs, “with the climate crisis worsening, the resultant environmental issues further catalyzing social inequalities and increasing pressures on already scarce natural resources essential to human life such as water, the wellbeing of our communities are at heightened risk.”