In pictures: World Water Day 2017

Some 650 million people, or one in 10 of the world’s population, do not have access to safe water, putting them at risk of infectious diseases and premature death. Dirty water and poor sanitation can cause severe diarrheal diseases in children, killing 900 under-fives a day across the world, according to United Nations estimates – or one child every two minutes.



World Water Day is observed the world over on March 22 and to mark the occasion we look at 19 pictures of water being used around the world.

Women fill bottles with water from a municipal truck ahead of World Water Day, in Bengaluru. PHOTO: REUTERS

A man collects coconuts thrown as offerings by worshippers on the weed covered Sabarmati river, ahead of World Water Day, in Ahmedabad. PHOTO: REUTERS

A man bathes at a public well on the World Water day in Colombo, Sri Lanka. PHOTO: REUTERS

A girl carries utensils after filling them with water from a pipe that supplies water to trains at a railway station on the outskirts of Agartala. PHOTO: REUTERS

Boys carry containers filled with water from a communal tap at a slum in Mumbai. PHOTO: REUTERS

Residents wait as they get their containers filled with drinking water from a municipal tanker at a slum in Kolkata. PHOTO: REUTERS

Tourists swim inside the cavern of Poco Azul (Blue well), ahead of World Water Day, in Bahia, Brazil. PHOTO: REUTERS

A labourer takes a bath at a communal tap in Mumbai. PHOTO: REUTERS

A boy fills a metal pitcher with water fetched from a communal tap at a slum in Mumbai, India. PHOTO: REUTERS

Boys jumps from a boat at the Bancarios beach, ahead of World Water Day, in the Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. PHOTO: REUTERS

Fishermen boats are seen, ahead of World Water Day, in the Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. PHOTO: REUTERS

Indian labourers transport canisters of drinking water to distribute to food stalls in Agartala on March 21, 2017, on the eve of World Water Day. PHOTO: AFP

Indian people wash clothes on the banks of the river Brahmaputra in Guwahati. PHOTO: AFP

Pakistani women carry water in canisters on their heads after filling them from a pump near their homes on the outskirts of Islamabad, ahead of World Water Day. PHOTO: AFP

Indian people get drinking water from a water tanker in Bhopal on March 21, 2017, on the eve of World Water Day. PHOTO: AFP

Pakistani girl Amna waits for her turn in front of a water pump on the outskirts of Islamabad. PHOTO: AFP

A child collects water from a water point in Juba, South Sudan. PHOTO: AFP

Pakistani children play in a boat alongside a dry patch of a river on the outskirts of Lahore. PHOTO: AFP

A Pakistani girl Amna (R) pumps water on the outskirts of Islamabad on March 21, 2017, ahead of World Water Day. PHOTO: AFP