A/HRC/45/40 C. Water and sanitation 39. With regard to clean drinking water (Goal 6), its daily consumption in Europe, for example, ranges from 200 to 300 litres per person, but it is less than 10 litres in some African countries. Sustainable access to clean, safe and affordable drinking water is a human right irrespective of who you are or where you live. However, for the 884 million people worldwide who live more than 1 km from a water source, water use is often less than 5 litres a day and consists of unsafe water.22 Close to half of the people in developing countries suffer from health problems caused by poor quality water and the lack of basic sanitation. In 2019, approximately 2.1 billion people were still living without safe drinking water, while demand and poor management had increased water stress in many parts of the world, with climate change adding dramatically to the pressure. It is also worrisome that by the year 2030, an estimated 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity.23 D. Energy 40. Access to electricity for lighting and cooking constitutes a basic, subsistence level need. While access to electricity has steadily increased worldwide over the last few decades – from 71 per cent of the global population in 1990 to 87 per cent in 2016 – nearly 1 billion people, or 13 per cent of the world’s population, still had no access to electricity in 2019.24 In 2016, more than 781 million people, or 39 per cent of the world’s population, still lacked access to clean, safe and affordable fuels for cooking,25 and 85 per cent of them live in rural areas in the developing world. E. Income and wealth 41. Extreme poverty cannot be eliminated as long as glaring inequalities persist between and within countries. In a paper published by the International Monetary Fund in June 2015, it was acknowledged that in advanced economies, the gap between the rich and poor was at its highest level in decades. Inequality trends had been more mixed in emerging markets and developing countries: although some countries experienced a decline in inequality, pervasive inequities in access to education, health care and finance remained. 26 According to UNDP, the richest 10 per cent of the world’s population have up to 40 per cent of world income, whereas the poorest 10 per cent earn only between 2 to 7 per cent. 27 It is acknowledged in the World Inequality Report 2018 that in recent decades, income inequality has increased in nearly all countries, but at different speeds.28 Furthermore, a developed country study in 2019 showed that massive and persistent inequality and large numbers of people trapped in poverty are to be found even in the midst of plenty. 29 There is growing consensus that economic growth alone is not sufficient to reduce poverty; that growth also needs to be inclusive and encompass the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.30 42. While some countries have reduced the number of people living in extreme poverty, economic gaps have continued to grow as the very rich amass unprecedented wealth.31 It is 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml (accessed 6 July 2020). “Message by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on World Water Day 2019”, 22 March 2019. Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, “Access to energy” (2019). Available at https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access. https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-7/ (accessed on 7 July 2020). Era Dabla-Norris and others, Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective, IMF Staff Discussion Notes 15/13 (International Monetary Fund, 2015). www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-10-reducedinequalities.html (accessed 6 July 2020). https://wir2018.wid.world/files/download/wir2018-full-report-english.pdf (accessed on 6 July 2020). Patrick Butler, “More than 4m in UK are trapped in deep poverty, study finds”, The Guardian, 29 July 2019. https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-10/ (accessed on 7 July 2020). https://inequality.org/facts/global-inequality/ (accessed 7 July 2020). 9