More than half the world anticipates serious harm from their drinking water

August 26, 2024

By Audrey Smith

New research published in the journal Nature Communications found that billions of people worldwide believe their drinking water will cause them future harm.

Joshua Miller

Dr. Sera Young

The research team – led by UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health doctoral student Joshua Miller and Sera Young, PhD, professor of anthropology and global health at Northwestern University – analyzed nationally representative survey data from Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll. The data were collected in 2019 and included responses from 154,195 adult individuals across 141 countries, more than half of whom (52%) reported that they anticipate experiencing serious harm from drinking water in the next two years.

The number of individuals anticipating harm was both higher and more geographically diverse than would be expected if risk perceptions aligned with current projections about access to safely managed drinking water. This is important because people who distrust their water are more likely to use packaged water (which is costly and has negative environmental impacts), consume sugar-sweetened beverages (which are associated with higher risk of obesity), change which foods they prepare and feel distress.

Among those from the United States surveyed, 39% indicated that they anticipate experiencing serious harm from drinking water in the next two years. This considerable level of concern comes even as an estimated 97% of the U.S. population uses safely managed drinking water services, according to 2022 data from the World Health Organization / UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene.

“It was surprising to see that so many people from areas we think of as having really good water infrastructure don’t trust that their water is safe,” said Miller, who is also a researcher with the UNC Water Institute. “Our research highlights that it is imperative both to deliver safe drinking water and to make sure that people know about their water source and have confidence in it.”

Water concerns are systemic and when trust in water services is damaged, it can take decades before public confidence is restored. Water utilities often feel that repairing the engineering and water delivery systems resolves problems with water, but as we’ve seen in Flint, Michigan, in recent years, that is only one component. People who lose confidence in their drinking water and the institutions that manage it will simply not use the water.

Consideration of users’ perspectives, particularly with respect to trust in the safety and governance of water services, is critical for promoting effective water resource management and ensuring the use, safety and sustainability of water services.

Dr. Aaron Salzberg

“This is the kind of work that can catalyze greater attention and political will to prioritize these services in national development plans and strategies and get us closer to achieving universal access to safe drinking water,” said Aaron Salzberg, PhD, director of the UNC Water Institute.

In the fall of 2023, Miller presented at the UNC Water & Health Conference and at the World Food Forum in Rome. Both presentations focused on new tools that can be used by governments and nongovernmental organizations to measure water and food insecurity. Sessions sought to train public health practitioners on how these tools can be implemented to improve access to safe water.

Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@unc.edu.