Safe, affordable, and accessible water and sanitation are prerequisites for people to live healthy, dignified, and productive lives. In 2010, the United Nations formally recognized the right of all human beings to have sufficient, safe, affordable, and accessible water and sanitation. But today, 2.1 billion people still lack safe drinking water and 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation services.
The COVID-19 pandemic is shining a spotlight on the weaknesses of social, economic, and health safety nets we’ve long taken for granted, including our water system. Hand washing is the most important action we can take to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but more than three billion people – over 40% of the global population – do not have reliable access to safe water and soap in their homes.
The Pacific Institute focuses on expanding universal access to water and sanitation, highlighting populations in the United States and abroad who lack these basic services. In the United States, our work has focused on underserved populations in California. Internationally, we work with the UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate and with international non-governmental groups to tackle these needs. As Co-Secretariat of the CEO Water Mandate, we provide a platform for businesses to support hygiene and sanitation services in their supply chains and in the communities they operate in, towards the achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 — universal access to these basic needs by 2030.
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Water Service Disconnections in California
Published: October 2018
When a person fails to pay their water utility bill, their water service can be disconnected. Lack of water in the home compromises health, and renders housing legally uninhabitable and untenantable. Shutoffs also pose a financial burden; in addition to the original debt, there are usually fees associated with late payment, notice of an impending shutoff, and service reconnection.
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Exploring the Business Case for Corporate Action on Sanitation
Published: September 2014
As society seeks to meet demands for goods and services for a growing population, it is important to improve understanding of the fundamental science of the hydrological cycle, its links with related global processes, and the role it plays in ecological and societal well-being.
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Measuring Progress Toward Universal Access to Water and Sanitation in California: Defining Goals, Indicators, and Performance Measures
Published: September 2018
In 2012, California’s Human Right to Water was passed, calling for safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water for all citizens. Yet while this statute has served as the touchstone for drinking water and sanitation efforts in the state, access to this basic right remains unrealized in many California communities.
Drinking Fountains and Public Health: Improving National Water Infrastructure to Rebuild Trust and Ensure Access
Published: February 2017
Concerns over drinking water quality and possible disease transmission, as well as widely-publicized water contamination incidents, have contributed to a decline in the number of publicly available water fountains.
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Assessing Water Affordability: A Pilot Study in Two Regions of California
Published: August 2013
A pilot study in California showed that many households, even within affluent communities, routinely spent over the affordability threshold of two percent of their household income on their water bill. The number of water systems with “unaffordable” rates varied by region and measure used, with important implications for policymakers.
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Drought and Equity in California
Published: January 2017
California’s climate is prone to prolonged periods of drought that are exacerbated by the effects of climate change.
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Plumbing the Depths: Californians Without Toilets and Running Water
Published: July 2019
California’s Human Right to Water law states that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.”
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