Global negligence has failed at least a quarter of the world’s population — 2 billion people can’t access clean drinking water and 3.6 billion don’t have access to safely managed sanitation.
Experts gather this week at the United Nations headquarters in New York for a historic three-day conference, which kicked off on Wednesday on World Water Day. This is a rare moment — the U.N. hasn’t hosted a water conference in nearly 50 years and has dubbed it “the most important water event in a generation.”
Some attendees are pushing for a fundamental change in the way water is managed and have called for it to be treated as a common good rather than a tradeable commodity. Some even want it protected under international law.
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About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
