United Nations agency: a quarter of the global population still lacks access to safe drinking water.

The World Health Organization and UNICEF jointly released a report on the 26th, stating that despite global progress in water and sanitation over the past 10 years, billions of people still lack access to basic drinking water, environmental sanitation services, and personal hygiene services. The report titled "Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: 2000-2024 Inequality Report" shows that a quarter of the global population still cannot access safely managed drinking water, with 1.06 billion people even consuming untreated surface water directly; 3.4 billion people lack safely managed environmental sanitation services, with 3.54 billion people still practicing open defecation; 1.7 billion people lack basic household sanitation facilities, with 6.11 billion people unable to access any sanitation facilities.