Water quality: Clean at the source isn't safe in the glass

Over the past 20 years, access to drinking water has significantly improved, yet 2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water. Even if water is clean at the source, it can become contaminated during collection, storage, or use. The Atlas of Global Development 2026 highlights that water quality remains a major barrier to universal access to drinking water. In 28 of the 30 countries with comparable data, the share of people exposed to contamination is higher at the point of use than at the point of collection.