In Pictures: World, We Have a Serious Water Problem

This World Water Week, here’s a look at global water issues in pictures.

A woman paddles in a makeshift boat as she collects recyclable trash from a polluted river in Navotas city, Philippines.  (Photo: Reuters/Ezra Acayan)

It is World Water Week (23 – 28 August 2015), but millions of people around the world are yet to get access to proper clean drinking water.

Despite significant progress the world is still failing millions of people, especially women and children. Every day, nearly 1,000 children under five die from preventable diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor sanitation, poor hygiene or unsafe drinking water.
— UNICEF

Water pollution and scarcity as well as incidents of toxic material being dumped in water are increasing. Here’s a look at the world’s water problem, in pictures.

A devotee pushes the foam away to make space for other devotees in the polluted waters of the river Yamuna during the religious festival of Chatt Puja in New Delhi. (Photo: Reuters/Ahmad Masood)

Dead fish are seen on the banks of Haihe river at Binhai new district in Tianjin, China, August 20, 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

Residents get their containers filled with drinking water from a municipal water tanker at a slum in Kolkata. (Photo: Reuters/Rupak de Chowdhuri)

An aerial view of cracked ground of the Atibainha dam, part of the Cantareira reservoir, during a drought in Nazare Paulista, Sao Paulo state in February. (Photo: Reuters/Paulo Whitaker)

Beach walkers reach out to help an oil soaked bird that washed ashore at Refugio State Beach Campground in Goleta, California. (Photo: Reuters: EUTERS/Lara Cooper/Noozhawk.com)