World Water Day 2017: People around the world still do not have safe water

Indian people get drinking water from a water tanker in Bhopal on the eve of World Water Day. International World Water Day is marked annually on March 22 to focus global attention on the importance of water.

AFP PHOTO / Praveen BAJPAI

Workers sink a borehole using a manual drill at a village in the west districts of Kinshasa so that  women and children do not have to walk long distances to reach small and often polluted river. Drilling of wells by hand is a common technique in rural D.R. Congo, a technique 4-5 time cheaper than the classic one and can be operated in remote areas where it would be near impossible to bring the materials for mechanical drilling.

AFP PHOTO/ FEDERICO SCOPPA

Women activists of Jan Sangharsh Samiti, Burari with earthen pitcher on their head protesting against the poor quality of drinking water supplied in their area, outside the Chief Minister's office, in New Delhi

The Times Of India/ Yogesh Kumar

A Chinese firefighter carries containers with water for local villagers after local rivers were polluted by cadmium in Xiliu village, Liuzhou city, south Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Yan Huang

A workers pulls his wheelbarrow with plastic barrels filled with water to distribute them to the restaurants in Agartala, capital of Tripura state of India

Abhisek Saha / Anadolu Agency

Indian woman Shabnam (R) bathes her daughter Zarine, 5, in chemically polluted water from tap connected to a bore-hole in the Vatva area of Ahmedabad. Hundreds of people are affected by water mixed with chemical affluents released directly underground by reverse bore from the many industrial units in the vicinity.

AFP PHOTO/ SAM PANTHAKY

School children enjoy the sea waves at Galle Face Green, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is already facing environmental challenges that could dwarf the damage inflicted by fractures in its society. Drought and erratic weather patterns deplete soils, leaving Sri Lanka increasingly vulnerable to climate change and new resource-driven conflicts.

Tharaka Basnayaka/NurPhoto

The arrival of drinking water in the region of Sinendé in Benin, thanks to international cooperation, has revolutionized life since the inauguration of the first water deposit. Girls can attend school frequently, diseases derived from the consumption of polluted water have almost disappeared, new agricultural cooperatives help in the family economy and women are already involved in the social fabric of the village. 

Alvaro Fuente/NurPhoto

In Sinendé, Benin

Photo by Alvaro Fuente/NurPhoto

In Sinendé, Benin

Photo by Alvaro Fuente/NurPhoto

A Bangladeshi man holds a glass of contaminated water coming out of a Dhaka Wasa supply line at Mir Hajibagh area, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Photo by Mehedi Hasan/NurPhoto

Local women and children wash clothes in the polluted waters of Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake and one of the most polluted, in the village of Agua Caliente in Jalisco state, western Mexico. Researchers from the Guadalajara University Center of Health Sciences presented a study showing high levels of heavy metals in the urine of local inhabitants - approximately 50 percent of those examined have kidney damage - in the community of Agua Caliente on the banks of Lake Chapala.

AFP PHOTO / Hector Guerrero

In Lake Chapala, Mexico.

AFP PHOTO / Hector Guerrero

Truck drivers collect water directly from the Nile river to distribute to residents for drinking consumption in Juba, South Sudan.

AFP PHOTO / ALBERT GONZALEZ FARRAN

A child collects water from a water point in Juba, South Sudan.

AFP PHOTO / Albert GONZALEZ FARRAN