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	Water, sanitation and hygiene are not privileges, they are basic human rights by UNICEF, WHO, Humanity & Inclusion, agencies   Aug. 2025   Water, sanitation and hygiene are not privileges, they are basic human rights.   1 in 4 people globally still lack access to safe drinking water – WHO, UNICEF   Despite progress over the last decade, billions of people around the world still lack access to essential water, sanitation, and hygiene services, putting them at risk of disease and deeper social exclusion.   A new report: Progress on Household Drinking Water and Sanitation 2000–2024: special focus on inequalities –launched by WHO and UNICEF during World Water Week 2025 – reveals that, while some progress has been made, major gaps persist. People living in low-income countries, fragile contexts, rural communities, children, and minority ethnic and indigenous groups face the greatest disparities.   Key facts from the report:   Despite gains since 2015, 1 in 4 – or 2.1 billion people globally – still lack access to safely managed drinking water*, including 106 million who drink directly from untreated surface sources.   3.4 billion people still lack safely managed sanitation, including 354 million who practice open defecation. 1.7 billion people still lack basic hygiene services at home, including 611 million without access to any facilities.   People in least developed countries are more than twice as likely as people in other countries to lack basic drinking water and sanitation services, and more than three times as likely to lack basic hygiene. In fragile contexts, safely managed drinking water coverage is 38 percentage points lower than in other countries, highlighting stark inequalities.   While there have been improvements for people living in rural areas, they still lag behind. Safely managed drinking water coverage rose from 50 per cent to 60 per cent between 2015 and 2024, and basic hygiene coverage from 52 per cent to 71 per cent. In contrast, drinking water and hygiene coverage in urban areas has stagnated.   Data from 70 countries show that while most women and adolescent girls have menstrual materials and a private place to change, many lack sufficient materials to change as often as needed. Adolescent girls aged 15–19 are less likely than adult women to participate in activities during menstruation, such as school, work and social pastimes.   In most countries with available data, women and girls are primarily responsible for water collection, with many in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia spending more than 30 minutes per day collecting water.   As we approach the last five years of the Sustainable Development Goals period, achieving the 2030 targets for ending open defecation and universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene services will require acceleration, while universal coverage of safely managed services appears increasingly out of reach.   “Water, sanitation and hygiene are not privileges, they are basic human rights,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director, Environment, Climate Change and Health, World Health Organization. “We must accelerate action, especially for the most marginalized communities, if we are to keep our promise to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.”   “When children lack access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, their health, education, and futures are put at risk,” said Cecilia Scharp, UNICEF Director of WASH. “These inequalities are especially stark for girls, who often bear the burden of water collection and face additional barriers during menstruation. At the current pace, the promise of safe water and sanitation for every child is slipping further from reach – reminding us that we must act faster and more boldly to reach those who need it most.”   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/fast-facts-1-4-people-globally-still-lack-access-safe-drinking-water-who-unicef http://www.who.int/news/item/26-08-2025-1-in-4-people-globally-still-lack-access-to-safe-drinking-water---who--unicef   July 2025   Rehabilitation for All: A global health imperative that can no longer wait - Humanity & Inclusion, agencies   One in three people around the world — a staggering 2.6 billion individuals — need rehabilitation services to improve or maintain their mobility, independence, quality of life, and wellbeing in their daily lives. Whether due to injury, disability, aging, or chronic diseases, rehabilitation is essential for health.   Yet, for millions, especially those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), these services remain out of reach, says the newly released HI report.   The demand for rehabilitation is rising sharply due to population aging, increased survival from injuries, and the growing burden of non-communicable diseases like cancer, heart disease, and dementia that are pushing healthcare systems beyond capacity.   By 2030, the world will count 1.4 billion people over the age of 60 — with two-thirds living in low- and middle-income countries by 2050.   Despite longer lifespans, healthy life expectancy is not improving, particularly for women, meaning more people are living longer with disabilities and chronic conditions that require rehabilitation.   The situation is dire in poorer countries. More than 50% of those in need of rehabilitation do not receive it. In some countries, only 3% of persons needing assistive technology have access to it. Many countries have fewer than 10 rehabilitation professionals per million people.   Rehabilitation should be approached as an investment. It reduces long-term healthcare costs while improving quality of life. However, rehabilitation has been historically deprioritised in public health funding, in health systems that are overall underfunded.   In Benin, for example, public health spending accounts for just 2.6% of total health expenditure. In Haiti, it’s 4.1%. This is well below the World Health Organization’s recommended 15%.   Worse, rehabilitation services are often not covered by funding schemes and insurances, leaving families to pay themselves. For low-income households, these expenses can be catastrophic, reaching up to 40% of their annual income.   Between 2024 and 2029, major donors have announced $17.2 billion in cuts to global health funding. In early 2025, the United States — once a significant contributor to foreign aid — halted its assistance altogether. In many countries, the provision of rehabilitation services largely depends on external aid, like in Haiti, where NGOs run up to 30% of rehabilitation centers.   The decline in international funding, combined with the persistently low level of public investment, is having and will continue to have an alarming impact on those in need of rehabilitation.   # Rehabilitation is an essential health service that forms part of the continuum of prevention, promotion, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care. Rehabilitation is not only for persons with disabilities; it is a necessary health service for anyone experiencing limitations in daily functioning due to a broad range of health conditions, such as injuries or trauma resulting from accidents, congenital disorders from a very young age, non communicable diseases (NCDs), pregnancy and delivery complications, as well as chronic diseases or other health conditions associated with ageing.   Rehabilitation often goes hand-in-hand with assistive technology (AT), which includes products, systems and services designed to “help maintain or improve an individual’s functioning related to cognition, communication, hearing, mobility, self-care and vision.”   These range from no-tech to high-tech solutions, including physical devices (such as wheelchairs, glasses, prosthetic limbs, canes, and hearing aids) and digital tools (such as speech recognition, screen readers, or closed captioning).   The Humanity & Inclusion report: Rehabilitation For All shows how access to rehabilitation changes lives.   http://www.hi.org/sn_uploads/document/HI-Rehabilititation-for-all-ENG-2025-2-FINAL.pdf http://www.hi-us.org/en/news/rehabilitation-for-all http://www.hi-us.org/en/news/index http://www.riglobal.org/rehabilitation-for-all-a-global-health-imperative-that-can-no-longer-wait/ Visit the related web page
	UN report reveals true cost of disasters by UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)   May 2025   Disasters are increasingly expensive and their impacts under-estimated. The Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR) 2025, highlights how direct disaster costs have grown to approximately $202 billion annually, but that the true costs of disasters is over $2.3 trillion when cascading and ecosystem costs are taken into account.   The burden of this cost- and the debt it creates- disproportionately fall on developing countries, but it doesn't need to be this way.   Published by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the GAR 2025 report titled "Resilience Pays: Financing and Investing for our Future," outlines how aligning investments with risk realities can break spirals of debt, uninsurability, and increasing humanitarian needs.   "This year's Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction examines the risks posed by disasters from now to 2050 and presents an indisputable case for action. It shows the eye-watering losses inflicted by disasters today, which hit vulnerable people the hardest. And it demonstrates that, on our current trajectory, costs will continue to mount as the climate crisis worsens.   But it also illustrates that, by boosting and sustaining investment in disaster risk reduction and prevention, we can slow that trend and reap economic benefits - saving lives and livelihoods while driving growth and prosperity, to help reach our Sustainable Development Goals," wrote Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, in his foreword welcoming the report.   The report outlines how the effects of increasing disaster costs are already being felt around the globe, from the emergence of areas deemed too risky for insurance companies to cover, to growing national debts, and recurring humanitarian crises.   However, it also presents case studies and policy recommendations for how investments in resilience can help stop the growing economic cost of disasters, reduce humanitarian needs, and make scarce international assistance resources even more effective.   "Systematic and greater investment in disaster risk reduction and resilience can not only arrest these trends but also reverse them. When riverbank communities have access to scientific tools for planning their land use, when they have resources for building flood protection systems, and when they have early warning systems, they not only reduce damages and losses from floods, but also create conditions for prosperity and sustainable growth in their communities," said Kamal Kishore, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Head of UNDRR.   The findings of GAR 2025 are especially relevant ahead of the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development, and speak to specific options for enhancing multilateral finance to better protect smaller developing economies.   The report also shows how the private sector can play a key role in reducing the economic damage of disasters and in filling the protection gap that leaves many countries in a worsening spiral of repeated disasters.   Increasing the quantity and quality of disaster risk reduction investments, in everything from early warning systems to critical infrastructure and schools, will be a focus of many of the discussions at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which UNDRR is convening from 2 to 6 June, and is hosted by the Government of Switzerland in Geneva.   http://www.undrr.org/news/billions-trillions-flagship-un-report-reveals-true-cost-disasters-and-how-reduce-them http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/05/1163716 http://www.undrr.org/gar/gar2025 http://www.internal-displacement.org/news/disasters-triggered-nearly-265-million-forced-movements-over-the-past-decade/ http://www.iom.int/news/new-report-highlights-sharp-inequalities-displacement-impacts-worldwide http://www.hi-us.org/en/84-of-people-with-disabilities-say-they-are-not-prepared--reducing-the-risk-of-disaster-is-vital http://www.unrisd.org/en/library/blog-posts/still-reaching-for-the-band-aid-vulnerability-risk-and-the-world-social-summit http://www.internal-displacement.org/policy-analysis/unga80-why-displacement-matters-for-global-debates/ Visit the related web page
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