• Worldwide, 884 million people do not have access to an improved water source* (1). Many more obtain their drinking water from improved, but microbiologically unsafe, sources.
• An estimated 2.5 billion people — half of the developing world — lack access to adequate sanitation (more than 35% of the world’s population) (1,2).
• According to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, improved sanitation could save the lives of 1.5 million children per year who would otherwise succumb to diarrheal diseases (1).
• Worldwide, 149 countries and territories are affected by at least one neglected tropical disease (NTD) (3).
• Guinea Worm Disease (GWD) is an extremely painful parasitic infection spread through contaminated drinking water. GWD is characterized by thread-like worms slowly emerging from the human body through blisters. Infection occurs among people living in impoverished communities in remote parts of Africa that do not have safe water to drink. In 2008, fewer than 5,000 cases of Guinea Worm Disease were reported. Most of those cases were from Sudan (78%) (4).
• Worldwide, soil-transmitted helminths infect more than one billion people due to a lack of adequate sanitation (5).
• Trachoma is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness and results from poor hygiene and sanitation. Approximately 41 million people suffer from active trachoma and nearly 10 million people are visually impaired or irreversibly blind as a result of trachoma (6). Trachoma infection can be prevented through increased facial cleanliness with soap and clean water, and improved sanitation.

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