Four billion people lack safe water
Abstract
Water safety is a key challenge compounded by climate risks and data gaps In 2020, more than 2 billion people were estimated to lack access to safely managed drinking water services (1). However, the existing data on safely managed drinking water services are scarce especially in low- and middle-income countries. On page 784 of this issue, Greenwood et al. (2) report that an estimated 4.4 billion people lack safe drinking water across 135 low- and middle- income countries, which is more than double the global estimate made in 2020. Their approach involves geospatial modeling of Earth observation—information from land-based, airborne, and satellite data—and household surveys. The authors identify primary factors, including fecal contamination, that affect drinking water safety, which can support policy-makers to improve delivery of safe drinking water services.
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