Many women and children in rural areas in developing countries spend hours each day walking kilometres to collect water from unprotected sources such as open wells, muddy dugouts or streams.
In urban areas they collect it from polluted waterways or pay high prices to buy it from vendors who obtain it from dubious sources. The water is often dirty and unsafe, but they have no alternative.
Carrying the heavy water containers back home is an exhausting task, which takes up valuable time and energy. It often prevents women from doing vital domestic or income generating work and stops children from going to school.
Diarrhoeal diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery, are common across the developing world - killing 4,000 children every single day.
People suffering from these diseases or caring for children who are ill from them are often unable to work to earn money, yet face large medical bills.
There is an urgent need for action, but all too often water and sanitation are overlooked in global development agenda, despite being consistently cited as top priorities by communities themselves.
Total global investments in water and sanitation would need to double for the Millennium Development Goal targets of halving the proportions of people living without water and sanitation by 2015 to be met.
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