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Unsafe Water Kills More People Than Disasters And Conflicts

Unsafe Water Kills More People Than Disasters And Conflicts

Fewer people around the world lack access to basic drinking water services than when the data was last published in 2015. Yet, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz explains below, several countries, especially in Africa, still have a way to go to provide their citizens with safe drinking water.

Infographic: Unsafe Water Kills More People Than Disasters and Conflicts | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

772 million people around the world still lack even basic access, according to the United Nations, who declared March 22 World Water Day.

This is despite the fact that unsafe water, causing diseases like cholera, typhoid and hepatitis A, is a bigger cause of human death annually than disasters and conflicts combined. This is according to data by PRIO and the Uppsala Conflict Data Program as well as the International Insurance Institute.

Children especially are affected by these deadly waterborne diseases.

The UN and WHO joint monitoring program on safe drinking water found that people lacking access to it are currently predominantly located in Africa.

South and Central America, on the other hand, offer basic drinking water services (defined as access to protected wells or springs in less than 30 minutes distance) to at least three quarters of the population in all countries except for Haiti.

The APAC region generally also provides these basic services to at least three quarters of people, except for in Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.

The Ongoing Misery of Puerto Rico

The Ongoing Misery of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricane Maria, which hit the U.S. territory on Sept. 20, remains slow and spotty with continued power outages, unsafe water and school closings, reports Dennis J Bernstein.


It’s been nearly seven weeks since Hurricane Maria shredded the island of Puerto Rico and, still, conditions for millions of Puerto Ricans remain grim and barely livable. Thousands are still stuck in shelters, while many others remain in their homes with limited access to electricity and clean water.

Puerto Rican residents walk in flooded streets in Condado, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sept. 22, 2017, following Hurricane Maria. (Puerto Rico National Guard photo by Sgt. Jose Ahiram Diaz-Ramos)

Last Thursday, large swaths of San Juan were again without power and those without their own independent generators were thrown into darkness with little support. Once again, heavy rains flooded out the streets of San Juan, creating the conditions for various water-borne diseases like cholera to proliferate.

I spoke with attorney and human rights activist Judith Berkan about conditions on the Island, even as federal troops prepare to leave the struggling U.S. territory.

Dennis Bernstein: Tell us about your day today.

Judith Berkan: I had two court hearings and in the middle of the first one, which was in the federal court, we became aware that there had been a major blackout throughout the north coast of Puerto Rico.  This one is supposed to last between twelve and eighteen hours.  The system gets overloaded and then it goes out again.

Tuesday night there were incredible storms here in Puerto Rico.  Because we don’t have electricity, the pumps to drain water from the drains are not functioning.  One of the attorneys at the first hearing had actually been pulled out of her car during the awful rains.

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Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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