When discussing the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological characteristics of water we are mainly talking about water quality. This proves important in providing statistics for the percentage availability and accessibility of water to people around the world.
Water quality can be affected by natural as well as human activities; however, the latter is having a much negative effect, which is not only harming human beings but also other biotic species.
Globally, 71% of the population (5.3 billion people) have access to non-contaminated drinking water services in close proximity as stated by a survey in 2017.This population, as expected, belongs to the developed countries like Australia, Canada, Mexico, Greenland, USA, and many European countries.
Whereas 90% of the global population uses the least basic service that takes a round trip of 30 minutes to collect water. Areas like Russia, China, and the subcontinent, along with a good population in South America and Central America have less than 10% people using an unimproved drinking water source.
On the dark side, 785 million people globally are deprived of even the basic drinking water service inclusive of the 144 million people that are solely dependent on surface water. Worldwide, 2 billion people are forced to obtain water from contaminated water sources that lead to 485000 diarrheal deaths each year along with transmission of other diseases like cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio.
In the least developed countries, it is estimated that 22% of the health care facilities lack water and waste management service, and 21% have no sanitation service. Most of this population is found in sub-Saharan Africa and is said to be the area with the poorest water quality in the world.
Looking at such statistics, it is predicted that by 2025 about half of the world population will be living in water-stressed areas. If people collectively around the world do not take steps and precautions, we all might be facing a shortage of one of the most important renewable sources present.