In Bangladesh, “having a water source” doesn’t always mean families have safe water to drink. Nationally, most people have a water source close to home — but water quality and reliability remain major problems, especially for low-income communities.

• 70 million people (40.9%) in Bangladesh use drinking water that is not free from contamination (JMP estimate for 2022).

• Water quality issues are even more severe in cities: 31.1 million people (45.81% of the urban population) use contaminated drinking water.

• 3.3 million people (1.91%) still do not have clean water close to home.

• Even when water is “nearby”, many households still don’t have it on their premises: 29.8 million people (18.1%) lack water accessible on-premises (JMP estimate for 2020).

Unsafe water is tightly linked to preventable illness — particularly diarrhoeal disease in young children. A Bangladesh-focused economic analysis estimated 6,751 under-5 deaths from diarrhoea in 2018. (Globally, diarrhoea accounted for ~9% of under-5 deaths in 2021, showing how significant this pathway remains. )