United Arab Emirates · Safely Managed Drinking Water · % of population

## What this measures

The share of people in the United Arab Emirates whose drinking water comes from an improved source on their premises, available when needed and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination. It is the top rung of the WHO/UNICEF drinking-water ladder and the measure for UN Sustainable Development Goal target 6.1. Annual, percent of population.

## Why it matters

Water service is the ground a population and its industries stand on. Gaps show where water stress, health costs and conflict over water, including with mines, farms and plants, are most likely.

## How to read it

Higher is better. Read it with basic drinking-water access: the distance between the two is the population with a source nearby that is not safe or not always available.

## What it does not say

It depends on water-quality testing that many countries do not report every year, so the Joint Monitoring Programme models the gaps and revises past years with each update. It says nothing about the volume or price of water, or about industrial and agricultural supply.

## Source

WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP), via World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator `SH.H2O.SMDW.ZS`. Licence per the World Bank's indicator metadata: CC BY 4.0. Palanor rewrites the full history each week (/api/cron/sovereign-sync), so revisions carry through.