A global link between unsafe water and hunger.
A new study covering 121 countries shows that improving access to safe drinking water is critical to tackling food insecurity in both low- and high-income countries.
A new global study has found that people without access to clean drinking water are significantly more likely to report lacking food and experiencing threats to food safety, underscoring the urgent need for coordinated global action to address these issues together.
Public health experts warn that climate change, population growth and increasing pressure on water resources could intensify these risks in the coming decades. Drought, extreme weather and declining freshwater supplies may make both water insecurity and food insecurity more common, particularly in low-resource communities.
The study was published in Nature Food by a team of researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) with expertise in water, food and public policy. They analyzed survey data from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, which included 124,003 respondents from 121 countries across all country-income levels.
