World's poor pay more for water than the rich: UN

[nitpicker]

https://www.dw.com/en/worlds-poor-pay-more-for-water-than-the-rich-un/a-47970657

World's poor pay more for water than the rich: UN

Date 19.03.2019

The UN released its annual World Water Development Report on Tuesday, which highlighted that some 2.1 billion people do not currently have access to clean and continuously available drinking water. An even larger number, 4.3 billion, do not have access to safe sanitation facilities.

"Improved water resources management and access to safe water and sanitation for all is essential for eradicating poverty, building peaceful and prosperous societies, and ensuring that ‘no one is left behind' on the road towards sustainable development," said the 2019 UNESCO report, titled "Leaving No One Behind."

A future of increased water scarcity is foreseeable, the report warned, which will have negative effects on the global economy.

By the year 2050, 45 percent of global gross domestic product and 40 percent of global grain production will be threatened by environmental damage and lack of water resources, the report said.

The title of the UNESCO report referenced a key finding: the inequality of water access. People who are poor or marginalized are also more likely to have limited access to proper water and sanitation, the report noted.

The report's editor-in-chief, Rick Connor, said that in cities, rich homes with piped water than poor people living in slums, who often had to buy water from trucks, kiosks and other vendors, spending roughly 10 to 20 times more. "The misperception is that they don't have water because they can't afford it — and that is completely wrong", Connor told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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