Information and statistics

Water-related diseases

  • Globally, 829 000 people are estimated to die each year from diarrhoea as a event of unsafe drinking-water, sanitation and manus hygiene.
  • In the WHO European Region, 14 people die every day due to diarrhoeal disease associated with poor water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash).
  • Diseases with the highest number of reported outbreaks are viral gastroenteritis, hepatitis A, East. coli diarrhoea and legionellosis. Published information signal that most 1/5 of all investigated outbreaks of infectious diseases in the Region were attributable to h2o.
  • Launder interventions can reduce diarrhoeal diseases past 25–35%, and significantly reduce other water-related diseases.

Drinking-h2o, sanitation and hygiene services for communities

  • Over the last decade, promising trends have been observed in admission to basic and safely managed drinking-water and sanitation services in the Region, indicating progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets 6.1 and 6.2.
  • In 2017, 92% of over 900 million people living in the Region used safely managed drinking-water services, which are improved water sources located on bounds, available when needed, and gratuitous from contamination.
  • Across the Region, 16 1000000 people still lack access to basic drinking-water services, of which over 3 meg rely on surface h2o for direct consumption.
  • Of the population in the Region, 68% used safely managed sanitation services and 73% used sanitation facilities continued to sewers.
  • More than 31 million people in the Region lack access to bones sanitation, including 314 000 that however practice open defecation.
  • Geographic, economic and social inequalities exist; progress is uneven, primarily focused on urban areas; and rural dwellers and the poorest are the most disadvantaged. For instance, differences in access to bones drinking-water and sanitation services between urban and rural populations tin be upwards to iv-fold in some countries in the Region.
  • Data on asset-based wealth quintiles of households bespeak a failing inequity gap between the poorest and richest population groups in 2000–2017, in the bulk of countries in the Region.

Launder in schools and health intendance facilities

  • Data from the Region indicate that in 2016, 95% of schools used basic drinking-water, 92% used basic sanitation and 90% used basic hygiene services. These averages, however, mask differences between and within countries. In some countries, access to bones drinking-water services is as depression as 51%, to basic sanitation services 34%, and to basic hygiene services 26%. Nigh 3.3 million pupils practise non enjoy bones drinking-water services at schoolhouse and over 5 million pupils nourish schools that lack basic sanitation facilities, such as toilets or latrines.
  • There is a substantial data gap on WASH in health care facilities in the Region. Earth Health Assembly resolution 72.7 on Launder in health care facilities calls for strengthening national monitoring.

Wash enabling environment

  • Data from xv countries of the Region that participated in the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-H2o (GLAAS) 2018–2019 indicate that a majority of countries take recognized the human rights to drinking water and sanitation in their legislation and constitutions, and accept developed national policies, targets and plans addressing water and sanitation. However, the implementation of these policies and plans is constrained by major financing gaps, in particular for rural sanitation and drinking water.