photos | World Water jour 2017 

More than 5 million people in South Sudan do not have access to safe, clean water, compounding the country’s problems of famine and civil war, according to UNICEF. Even those South Sudanese who can find water spend much of their day hiking, fetching and carrying the containers of the precious fluid that is essential to life.

As World Water Day approaches on March 22, nearly 27 million people do not have access to clean water in Somalia, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and Yemen. About 12% of the world population lacks clean drinking water, and water-related diseases account for 3.5 million deaths each year, more than car accidents and AIDS combined, according to the World Water Council.

In Africa, 319 million people, representing 32% of sub-Saharan Africans, don’t have safe drinking water.

A girl washes her legs at a water point about 2 1/2 miles from her home in Aweil, in South Sudan. World Water Day is March 22.

A girl walks home with her brothers and friends after collecting clean water from a water point about 2 1/2 miles away from her home in South Sudan.

A young girl carries clean water home from a water treatment point built by UNICEF in Torit, South Sudan.

A boy sits next to a fetid pool of water in Aweil, in South Sudan.

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

Residents get drinking water from a tanker in Bhopal, India, on the eve of World Water Day.

People cross the sewage line covered with plastic waste and other litter with the help of a makeshift raft in Mumbai, India.

An indigenous woman wearing traditional attire walks home after collecting water from a public tap on the outskirts of Hyderabad, India.

People bathe at an outdoor facility a day ahead of World Water Day 2017 in Karachi, Pakistan.

A Nepalese man carries a metal container locally known as "gagri" containing fresh water in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

A traditional well is a major source of water in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

Filipino fishermen arrange a fishing net next to a sewage pipe at a village in the town of Bacoor in the Philippines.