Water occupies over 70% of the Earth’s surface. Only 2.5% of the total global water resources is fresh water, and only 0.6% is drinking water. In theory, it should be sufficient for global needs, but in practice access to sustainable water resources is limited due to their uneven distribution and irrational management of them. Climate changes and their effects also have a negative impact on the state and volume of fresh water resources. In 2015-2017, the level of water security decreased in majority of regions of the world, which means that the capacity to satisfy the global demand for fresh water is gradually declining. Even though on a global scale 17% of renewable water resources is consumed every year (which theoretically indicates lack of water stress), there are huge regional differences in this respect. The situation in Northern Africa, where the annual water abstraction exceeds its sustainable resources, is approaching life-threatening levels. The threat of water deficit is highly probable in Central Asia (where 88% of renewable water supplies are abstracted every year) and in Southern Asia (71%). The consumption of water from renewable resources also approaches dangerously high levels in Western and Eastern Asia, where it amounts to 54% and 46%, respectively.

Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources (%)

The percentage of the global population using safely managed drinking water services has increased from 64% in 2005 to over 70%. However, 2.2 billion people, mainly from the world’s poorest regions, still have limited or no access to drinking water. Access to safe drinking water is highly unequal across regions. The situation is considerably better in cities (where 85% of inhabitants have such access) than in rural areas (53%). Among all regions, inhabitants of Northern America and Europe have the widest access to safely managed drinking water – 99% and 93% of them, respectively. On the contrary, the inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa are in the worst situation in this respect – only 27% of them have guaranteed access to safe drinking water. Since 2005, the situation has improved in all regions, but the highest increase in the percentage of people with access to drinking water has been recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean (from 58% to 74%), Southern Asia (from 46% to 59%) and Central Asia (from 58% to 71%).

Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services (%)

Polish fresh water resources are relatively small, and additionally characterized by seasonal variability and area diversity. The amount of renewable freshwater resources per inhabitant of Poland (long-term annual average¹) is nearly 1.6 thousand m³, which signals a threat of water stress. Nearly half of the EU countries have alarmingly small reserves of freshwater (i.e. less than 3 thousand m³ per person), and the reserves of Poland, Malta, Cyprus and Czechia fall below the threshold of water security (i.e. 1.7 thousand m³ per inhabitant, which, according to the UN, is the level below which a country is classified as threatened with water deficit).

Renewable freshwater resources (thousands cubic metres per inhabitant, LTAA^a)

a LTAA - long-term annual average (the minimum period taken into account for the calculation of long term annual averages is 20 years).

The majority of inhabitants of Poland, similar to majority of EU inhabitants, have access to basic sanitary facilities and are connected to at least a secondary sewage treatment system. Poland has almost fully caught up with Western Europe in terms of equipping households with bathrooms. In most EU member states, the percentage of population having neither a bath, nor a shower, nor indoor flushing toilet in their household does not exceed 1% (whereas the EU average is 2%). This kind of equipment does not have 2% of Polish inhabitants (half as much as at the beginning of the decade). This percentage is higher among people experiencing poverty (6%) than people living above poverty threshold (1%), and a similar trend can be observed in the whole EU, where it is 5% and 1%, respectively.

The expansion of water and sewage systems, including intensified sewage treatment which improves the quality of water and enhances its purity, have resulted in a general widening of the access to sanitary facilities. Gradual replacement of methods for solely mechanical removal of impurities from water with more advanced technologies, including secondary treatment of sewage, seems of key importance for the environment. In Poland, like in the majority of EU countries, the percentage of the population connected to at least secondary waste water treatment (i.e. biological treatment with a secondary settlement or other process, resulting in a removal of organic material) has increased. At present, 74% of inhabitants of Poland have access to this type of wastewater treatment (compared to 65% at the beginning of the decade), whereas in those EU countries where such plants are used to the greatest extent (e.g. the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Luxembourg), the percentage of population with such access exceeds 95%.

Share of population having neither a bath, nor a shower, nor indoor flushing toilet in their household (%)