All children have the right to be healthy. Yet thousands of children die every day because of inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services and poor hygiene practices. Almost half of the developing world’s population – 2.5 billion people – lacks improved sanitation facilities, and over 884 million people still use unsafe drinking water sources.

Poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) can also lead to impoverishment and diminished opportunities. Children –particularly girls – are denied their right to education because their schools lack private and decent sanitation facilities. Women are forced to spend large parts of their day fetching water. Poor farmers and wage earners are less productive due to illness, health systems are overwhelmed and national economies suffer. Without WASH, sustainable development is impossible.

UNICEF works in more than 90 countries around the world to improve water supplies and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, and to promote safe hygiene practices. We sponsor a wide range of activities and work with many partners, including families, communities, governments and like-minded organisations. In emergencies we provide urgent relief to communities and nations threatened by disrupted water supplies and disease. All UNICEF WASH programmes are designed to contribute to the Millennium Development Goal for water and sanitation: to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation.

Ask Nick Clegg to put it right for children at this September's UN Millennium Development Goals meeting.

UNICEF supports the Sanitation and Water for All global partnership and is a member of End Water Poverty. 

Find out more

• Infosheet: Clean water and sanitation
• Find out more about Sanitation for all: a global framework for action
• UN Water website
• Soap, toilets and taps: How UNICEF supports water, sanitation and hygiene
• Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2010 Update