“Across Asia, there are children who wake up each day without the certainty of safe drinking water. When a child drinks unsafe drinking water the consequences ripple far beyond illness. It can mean days missed from play and school, stolen energy and even lifelong, serious health problems that children carry with them into adulthood."
BANGKOK, 26 February 2026 - About three in every 10 children in Asia lack access to safe drinking water, with a global target to ensure universal and affordable access to safe drinking water set to be missed by 2030 at current rates of progress, Save the Children said.
The latest data on access to safe drinking water for Asia’s children comes as regional experts meet this week in Bangkok for the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development to discuss progress on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This includes Goal 6 which aims to ensure universal, equitable and affordable access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene for all by 2030.
As of 2024 (the latest available data) at least 332 million children across 20 countries in East, Southeast and South Asia did not have access to safe drinking water, or about 32% of the child population, according to Save the Children analysis of UN data.[1]
If the rates of progress seen from 2015 to 2024 continue, the region will fall short of ensuring safe drinking water for all children by 2030 as 26% of children will not have this access.
Arshad Malik, Regional Director Asia, Save the Children, said:
“Across Asia, there are children who wake up each day without the certainty of safe drinking water. When a child drinks unsafe drinking water the consequences ripple far beyond illness. It can mean days missed from play and school, stolen energy and even lifelong, serious health problems that children carry with them into adulthood.
“Although huge strides have been made with access to clean drinking water there is still much progress to be made including here in Asia. Water is essential to life and children should never be deprived of safe and easy to access water. Investing in safe, clean water is not just an investment in local infrastructure. It’s an investment in the future of every child.”
Children’s access to safe drinking water is also threatened by the global climate crisis including drought, floods and rising global temperatures which can all disrupt access to safe drinking water.
Cuts to foreign aid have also led to funding gaps for essential water services.
Although progress has been made, Bangladesh is one of the countries that is set to miss the 2030 target.
The Satkhira Resilient Water Systems Pilot Project led by Save the Children with support from Uttaran, a Bangladesh-based social development organisation, has brought access to safe water through reverse osmosis (or water filtration) systems, pond sand filters and rainwater harvesting to communities across Satkhira in southwestern Bangladesh.
The project has benefited about 12,500 children, which includes 7 schools.
Nazifa Farha, a student from Satkhira, said:
“Previously we didn’t have a source of safe water in our school. Our only source was deep tube well water which we didn’t consider safe so we had to bring water from home or go to a lot of trouble to collect water from far away. Now we are happy to have such a safe water source right next to our classroom.”
In Cambodia, Tangly, 11, who lives on the Tonle Sap River in Kampong Chhnang Province, shared the challenges he and his friends faced due to a lack of safe water.
With co-funding from the European Union (EU) and Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF), Save the Children in Cambodia worked closely with Tangly’s school to install a water treatment station, providing about 1,700 students with a daily supply of safe drinking water.
Tangly said:
“In the past, when we were thirsty, we had to drink water collected from the river without filtering it or sometimes had to buy bottled water, which was expensive.”
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – a blueprint of 17 goals agreed by all 193 United Nations (UN) Member States in 2015 to transform our world for the better – have about four years left before the global implementation target set for 2030.
Goal 6 also focuses on improving water quality and increasing water-use efficiency to tackle global water scarcity and inequality. [2]
Save the Children is calling on donors, governments and partners to help increase children’s access to safe drinking water by investing in providing safe drinking water to communities at scale and by integrating access to clean drinking water within national public health priorities.
ENDS
References:
[1] Data on percentage of population using safely managed drinking water sources taken from https://sdg6data.org/en/tables
The percentages were converted into a number of children per country using population data from UN World Population Prospects. Data for children in mainland China only covers urban areas which represent 66% of the population as data on number of people accessing safe drinking water is not available for rural areas.
Latest data available for 2024. We calculated average progress made in 20 south, eastern and south-eastern Asian countries between 2015 and 2024, and used this to project the number of children who will lack safe drinking water by 2030 unless progress is sped up.
The figures in the PR are an estimate since they are based on national averages on water access (except mainland China where, as noted above data is for urban areas) and child shares.
[2] https://globalgoals.org/goals/6-clean-water-and-sanitation/
Spokepersons
Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Global Media Manager: Asia
Amy.Lefevre@savethechildren.org
