The world has made significant progress in expanding access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene over the last decade. Between 2015 and 2024, 961 million people gained access to safely managed drinking water, 1.2 billion to safely managed sanitation and 1.6 billion to basic hygiene services. By 2024, global coverage stood at 74 per cent for drinking water (up from 68 per cent), 58 per cent for sanitation (up from 48 per cent) and 80 per cent for hygiene (up from 66 per cent).

Some of the biggest improvements were seen in rural areas, where access to safe drinking water grew from 50 to 60 per cent, safe sanitation coverage from 36 to 49 per cent and basic hygiene access from 52 to 71 per cent. Open defecation has declined by 429 million people globally and is nearly eliminated in urban areas.

However, more needs to be done in LDCs, which in 2024 were around two to three times more likely to lack these essential services compared to the global average. In low-income countries, open defecation rates were four times the global average. Countries affected by conflict and instability lagged 33 to 38 percentage points behind stable countries across all three measures.

Globally, water-use efficiency improved by 24 per cent between 2015 and 2023 – from $17.4 to $21.5 per cubic metre. However, that improvement was driven less by a reduction in freshwater withdrawals, which were broadly stable, and more by increased economic output per cubic metre of water. Efficiency gains have been uneven across regions: Oceania, Europe and Northern America are above the global average, while Central and Southern Asia record the lowest levels.

Water stress – a measure of how much freshwater is withdrawn relative to available supply – has remained largely unchanged, with the global average holding at 18 per cent in 2023, nearly matching 2015 levels. That average, however, masks stark disparities: in Northern Africa and Western Asia and Southern and Central Asia, water stress exceeds 75 per cent, and around 10 per cent of the global population live in countries with high or critical stress levels. National averages also hide significant local disparities, meaning data at the local level are essential for identifying hidden vulnerabilities and ensuring interventions reach the places that need them most

Agriculture is the largest user of freshwater – accounting for 72 per cent of freshwater withdrawals – and the least efficient sector at $0.7 per cubic metre – far below the services sector ($115.5 per cubic metre) and industry ($38 per cubic metre). Yet agriculture also recorded the largest relative efficiency improvement at 39 per cent since 2015, compared to 33 per cent in industry and 10 per cent in services.

This makes it the biggest lever for improving overall water-use efficiency, through modernized irrigation, climate-smart practices, stronger governance and digital watermanagement tools. Reducing water stress more broadly will also require stronger institutions, improved data systems, and sustained investment in governance, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions.

To improve water quality, it is essential to measure it. Long-term monitoring has improved with 124 countries reporting on water quality in 2023, up from 72 in 2017. Around half of monitored water bodies – including lakes, rivers and groundwater – showed good ambient quality, with long-term data indicating minimal change or gradual deterioration, driven mainly by agricultural runoff and untreated wastewater.

The picture varies widely by region: Europe and Northern America have robust networks, while Asia and Latin America show mixed progress with persistent data gaps. Africa has expanded its monitoring infrastructure, though coverage remains limited, and long‑term trends are still difficult to assess.

Without better monitoring, pollution is harder to identify early and harder to address before water quality deteriorates further, a gap that falls hardest on low- and middle-income countries. Strengthening national monitoring networks and adopting innovations such as Earth observation, citizen science and low-cost sensors are essential for controlling pollution, informing policy and protecting water resources in the long term.

While more operational arrangements are needed, there are positive signs of cooperation on shared basins

Most of the world’s freshwater crosses borders, with transboundary rivers, lakes and aquifers shared by 153 United Nations Member States. These shared waters make cooperation essential to maintaining peace, improving climate resilience, protecting ecosystems and managing food and energy security.

In 2023, only 43 countries had operational arrangements covering 90 per cent or more of the transboundary basin area in their territory, and at least 20 countries had no arrangements at all.

While more operational arrangements are needed, there was notable improvement in monitoring transboundary water cooperation. In 2023, 129 countries participated in the last SDG monitoring of transboundary water cooperation, up from 107 in 2017. Over 90 per cent of countries sharing transboundary waters have now reported data. This unprecedented engagement is already translating into action on the ground – including a new arrangement between Armenia and Georgia on transboundary water monitoring in the Khrami-Debed(a) basin and work towards a legal and institutional framework for the Senegalo-Mauritanian Aquifer Basin shared between the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal.

Nearly half of countries saw river flows decline, and the gap between regions is growing

Global figures on river flows mask significant regional variation. While minimum river flows worldwide between 2019–2023 remained close to the 2000–2019 baseline, the share of countries with declining flows has grown. Around 46 per cent of countries have seen minimum flows shrink, with over one fifth reporting reductions exceeding 10 per cent.

The picture varies sharply by region. Europe and Northern America and parts of sub-Saharan Africa record slight improvements – though with high internal variability – while Latin America and the Caribbean and parts of Central and Southern Asia show the most widespread declines.

These diverging trends reflect rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns, which are altering runoff regimes across the world. The growing variance between regions makes local monitoring crucial in identifying emerging water stress and informing management strategies. National wetland inventories are a key tool for identifying where stress is greatest and prioritizing action to protect, restore and sustainably use water resources.

More countries are strengthening policies and legal frameworks for sustainable water management and community participation, but implementation continues to lag because of major funding and capacity gaps. In 2023, the global average score for integrated water resources management rose to 57 out of 100, up from 49 in 2017, while over 90 per cent of countries had defined procedures for community participation in rural drinking water and water-resource planning.

Yet progress on paper has not translated into action. Of 183 countries surveyed, 73 remain significantly behind in implementing watermanagement frameworks, leaving them more vulnerable to floods, droughts and water disputes. Community participation also remains low in practice, with only 20 to 30 per cent of countries reporting high levels of engagement.

Inadequate funding is the critical bottleneck: 85 per cent of countries report insufficient revenue to implement their water management plans, and around 70 per cent lack adequate funding at the local and basin levels where water is actually managed. At the community level, only 9 to 11 per cent of countries report sufficient financial resources to support community participation. Coordination across government sectors also remains fragile, with only half of the countries having formal mechanisms in place to manage water resources together. As development finance contracts and climate pressures intensify, accelerating progress requires robust institutions, inclusive governance and predictable financing for water management entities. Critically, member states must structurally integrate water resource management directly into national climate adaptation planning to build longterm environmental and macroeconomic resilience.