This timeline visualizes key milstones in USAID and the U.S. Government's efforts to tackle to global water crisis, starting in 2005 when Congress signed the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act into law.

Water Security and Sanitation at USAID

Success in the water and sanitation sector cannot be defined by only the number of boreholes drilled or toilets built. In addition to helping communities gain first-time access to improved water and sanitation services, USAID is focusing on building strong, self-reliant, systems to deliver services beyond the life of our projects. That not only means adapting our approach, but also expanding how we measure outcomes.

In celebration of World Water Day 2019, Globalwaters.org is debuting a new collection of interagency stories. Learn more.

Water makes headlines in times of crisis—think Cape Town Day Zero, Hurricane Maria, or the cholera epidemic in Yemen. But for the 2.1 billion people worldwide who live without access to safe drinking water, and approximately 4.4 billion without access to adequate sanitation, lack of these basic necessities is a daily reality that affects health, economic well-being, productivity, and quality of life.

In November 2017, the U.S. Government (USG) released the first-ever whole of government Global Water Strategy, the culmination of 17 government agencies working together to address the world’s most pressing water challenges through diplomacy, foreign assistance, science, and technology. The real work of making this vision a reality and coordinating the implementation of the Strategy at the USG level began Tuesday, March 13, at the “Reaching a Water Secure World: U.S. Global Water Strategy Workshop” hosted by USAID and the U.S. Department of State, in Washington, DC, and live streamed worldwide.